Sky Ball
by SmallShadowyBirds
Summary: Rumors made Aozora Kotori just impossible to confront. However, just like how 'words' are not synonymous with 'truths', 'rumors' are not synonymous with 'reality'. A story where misunderstandings and misjudgments bring two opposites together. But most importantly, the word "Hello." [Nishinoya x OC]
1. Hello

**Sky Ball**

**I. Hello**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu in any way, shape or form. I do not own any characters/settings... you get the point.**

* * *

I felt like dissolving into my shoes. If it was possible, I would have. While I had almost been excited for high school, after forcing myself to realize the facts, high school was always stressful. You always had to watch what you were doing, making sure not to tick anyone off. Not only that, but food was expensive. Classrooms were hot. People were pushy. Teachers had no mercy. What was there to like?

No matter what, middle school was easier. I didn't have any friends, but I wasn't bullied either. It was more like I was just... there.

I was walking to school in the morning. Though I was walking with the soles of my shoes scraping against the ground, there was no sound of footsteps.

I continued my silent stroll when I came across a group of girls chatting. Honestly, there's nothing worse than that kind of group who screws up the entire sidewalk system by refusing to disband. There were three girls walking side by side, taking up the entire width of the sidewalk. They didn't notice I was right behind them, as no sound of footsteps could be heard, and, without fail, they didn't 'shrink' to make room for anyone to pass. Was this a 'chicken' kind of thing? 'First person to move loses!'? They should have disbanded.

"Oh my _gosh, right?_ She _totally_ deserves better," one of the girls commented to another in her group.

Even my sacrifice of waiting for them was in vain. They were talking about something irrelevant. It seemed like rumors were already starting.

The natural thing to do in this case was to say 'excuse me'. After all, I wasn't blessed with a voice for no reason.

When I thought of that scenario, however, two likely situations appeared in my mind:

One, where they apologized for taking up the sidewalk space and let me through.

The second, they would roll their eyes and ask, 'What's with her?'

Either way, there was a positive and negative to each situation. As to not disturb them, I chose neither of the choices and continued walking behind them, even at the tortoise-pace they had been going at.

At this rate, I would really be late for school.

"Hey, who're you?" One of the girls finally noticed me, and turned to address me. She began scanning my outer image. I became really self-conscious of this fact.

"My name is Aozora Kotori." In my ears, I sounded calm enough.

"Oh." She replied flatly. If she had just said, 'are you trying to get through? Sorry!' This whole situation would have been over.

"You know, she's not ugly, but she's so not hot, either. Pretty flat, actually," the second girl whispered to the third. I was a little peeved that they were remarking on my bust, but I didn't say anything.

"You know, I think I've heard the name 'Aozora' somewhere around here before... I think she's a first-year?" The first girl claimed.

The three girls began to exchange a series of facial expressions to try and remember where the first had heard my surname.

The third gave a sudden look of disbelief. "No way."

"What? What is it?" The second asked.

"Aozora Kotori! Her family's _totally_ rich. Her mom's from an aristocratic family. Her dad's even in charge of a police squad, I heard, and they're really overprotective, from what I hear."

Why.

Those were all just misunderstandings that had somehow sprouted. My family wasn't aristocratic, but we were more of an upper-middle class house. We made more money than average. This was almost a given, since my mom was a financial adviser and my dad was a surgeon. They were both well-paying jobs. As for the police squad rumor, it was because of the time when some kids were trying to egg our house during Halloween and my dad's tongue slipped and said he'd call 'our police' instead of 'the police'.

"Um..."

As I was about to correct her, I was rudely interrupted by the first. "Oh, yeah, I knew I heard that name before! Are you really Aozora Kotori?"

"Um, yes, but—" I made another attempt to clear up the situation.

"_Obviously_ it's her. Did you even need to ask? She already said so at the start!" The second one rolled her eyes. "It's nice to meet you! You're small, but really cute!"

Huh. That was kind of ironic, in a way, as she was making fun of my barely-B size earlier. Furthermore, I wasn't that short. Each year, I was the smallest possible height for average height each year. This meant that since the height average for my age group was 150cm to 170cm, I was 150cm. So I'm technically average height. Either way, their opinions changed of me quickly with the misconceptions they'd made up.

I looked at my watch and realized I was going to be late. It seemed that a conversation took too much of my time. I guess it was finally time to interrupt them.

"Can I get past you guys? I'm going to be late." I phrased it calmly, but it sounded almost rude in my ears. I internally scolded myself, and figured I'd apologize. _Should I start off with 'sorry' or 'I meant...'?_

"Oh, yeah. See you, Aozora." They made way for me and began to gossip in their small clique again. I didn't want to interrupt them, so I just continued on my way.

I was mostly used to this kind of behavior.

When I said at the beginning that I 'didn't have any friends', I guess that technically wasn't true. I had friends, but they were just like that—the kind of 'friend' who would notice me when I was walking near them (which was a feat in itself) talk to me for a bit, and then leave. So it wasn't that bad of a life, since being 'hard to confront' also meant you wouldn't get bullied. So things could've been worse.

Didn't mean I was happy with it.

* * *

At the end of the day, I shuffled out with the rest of the class. It was the same as yesterday, the day before that... the same as everyday. Like usual, the gaze of people passed over me.

Most people think that having rumors that aren't negative about you make you popular, but my entire existence seemed to prove this wrong.

I was leaving the classroom when I heard the guy beside me say, "The work today was really hard! I've got tons of history homework..."

To double check, I looked at my stack of homework to find my own history workload. It soon occurred to me that it wasn't there. I could've sworn I put it in my folder, though...

I hoped this wouldn't turn into something that happened frequently as I headed back to the classroom. As I was about to turn right into the room, I was met by a familiar face.

His eyes widened for a second, but instead of bumping into him like I would have, he backed to the side quickly. "Oh, sorry."

Even if he was short, that didn't dictate his fast reflexes.

"No, it's my fault. Sorry, Nishitani-kun." I apologized to him.

He stared at me for a few seconds, but then looked confused. "Nishitani...? Ahh! No, it's Nishinoya."

Eh? But... eh...? The kanji in his name reads Nishitani*! I hadn't talked to him, but I'd read his name on a lot of occasions. I still didn't bother to correct him. After all, he knew his name better than I did.

"O-Oh, I'm really sorry." I bowed to him slightly as a form of apology before heading into the classroom.

The only person in there was Tanaka Ryuunosuke, who quickly walked up to his friend. "Oi, oi, oi. That girl you just ran into. Don't you know her?"

Nishinoya looked at me, clearly not knowing anything about me. "Uh, Aozora... something-or-other?"

Tanaka shook his head. "Aozora Kotori! Her mom's nobility and her dad has their own police squad. They're super rich and protective."

"Oh, really," Nishinoya replied casually, but sounded as though he genuinely didn't care—or that was my own misconception. He looked at me for a few seconds.

"Well, we better get going. Daichi isn't gonna wait forever, you know," Tanaka said.

"Oh! Yeah, right." He turned his gaze away from me and they started heading out to wherever 'Daichi' was. Wasn't that the name of a third-year? Weren't they on a sports team?

I looked in my desk for the history project I had apparently forgotten, which was rare for me, but I couldn't find it in my desk, either. I looked back at the pile in my arms, and found it stuffed in-between my agenda, and not in my history folder.

I sighed at my stupidity, and walked out of the classroom.

* * *

When I walked into class 1-2 the next morning, I was greeted with, "Morning, Aozora."

I looked at Nishinoya in amazement. Some people gave him a stare, while others paid no attention or didn't hear. He looked unaffected, though—still remaining with a small grin at me.

I looked at him for a few moments, just to process the fact that I had received a friendly greeting. It wasn't that rare, but the difference was that I didn't even go near him, nor did he ever say hello to me until that point.

"Good... morning...?" I probably sounded very confused. He turned his attention away from me and continued to talk to one of his friends before homeroom started.

But he knew. He knew about the rumors, and unlike everyone else, still decided to talk to me.

That day, the only thing on my mind was that 'Morning, Aozora'.

For the next few weeks, the same routine happened in the classroom—when I entered, he would go out of his way to say 'hello' or 'good morning', and I would always reply likewise, with a neutral expression.

When I went home one day, I did my normal routine: worked on homework while letting the TV play in the background.

"Kotori, did something happen today?" My dad asked while preparing dinner.

I stopped doing my homework and looked at him. "Eh...? What do you mean by that?"

My dad shrugged. "Well, you've been smiling a lot more often lately."

I blinked a couple of times. I suddenly became conscious to the fact that I was smiling. But why was I smiling...?

Ah, it must have been Nishinoya. Since I never had many friends, the fact that he, alone, said 'hello' to me every morning must have made me really happy.

"So I was wondering if anything happened..." my dad continued.

"No, it's not really... anything special." It wasn't a lie.

My father eyed me carefully. "So it's not a boy or anything."

"Well, it's a boy, but I don't like him. Ah, wait, no, I like him, but not in that way... if you know what I'm saying... well, we're more like acquaintances." I hadn't even tried lying my way out of it.

"Okay, but you shouldn't be interested in guys. You need to prioritize your studies so you can get a future." My father seemed strikingly serious.

_I said I understood. Why is he still telling me that?_ "I know. Of course."

Then again, he said it as if a guy would actually like me. That was a joke.

"Well, even if you do like a guy, he might just be taking advantage of you."

Taking advantage of me...?

At first, I didn't understand. Why would someone take advantage of someone like me?

The rumors.

It was the only thing that really made sense. I mean, why would he only start it after learning the rumors about me, when all year I'd been in the same class as him? If that was the case, then 'good morning' would have had no special purpose. Nishinoya would have been the same as everyone else. It wasn't genuine at all.

I decided that I shouldn't encourage his behavior, especially considering the rumors weren't true. If I did, I would have wasted his time, and caused trouble for both him and myself.

* * *

**this story takes place during nishinoya's first year. In other words, kageyama and hinata don't come in until next _year._ It's not too far off, though. since we know nothing/very little about what happened last year, i just put him in Class 1-2 since it's mentioned that class 1-4 and 1-5 are college prep classes, so he wouldn't be there.**

***西谷: i read this as "nishitani" when i was reading the raws, and found that it was really easy to mix up, since it can be pronounced 'nishi' and 'noya'. nishinoya, i assumed would be 西之谷. i was wrong.**

**anyway HAHA! it's volleyball season at our school and to get myself pumped I decided to watch haikyuu. it filled my intentions. and more.**

**so i fell in love with haikyuu!. **

**i hope you guys enjoy this story, and i hope i don't fall into a haikyuu hiatus.**

**favourite, follow, review, whatever you feel like doing. **

**#ssb**


	2. Friendship

**Sky Ball**

**II. Friendship**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu in any way, shape, or form. I do not own any characters/settings... you get the point.**

**Thanks to: _Held Together With Tape, NoLiFe97, Guest, Gallifreyan Annihilator _and_ Vamps2Bats f_or reviewing/following/favouriting/adding to whatever list! Means a lot, believe it or not! **

* * *

To say the least, my week wasn't going smoothly. The catalyst for this was my father's words, which I had been fixated on ever since he proposed the idea. _"Even if you do like a guy, he might just be taking advantage of you."_

It was true. It was absolutely plausible. When I used this newly-discovered fact to answer some questions, a lot made sense. Any contradictions I could come up with could probably be opposed with it being a misunderstanding on my part.

Q1. Why would he start now?

A1. When he almost bumped into me, he didn't even know my first name. Then, when Tanaka-kun told him the rumors, he suddenly started being nice to me.

Q2. Why would he care?

A2. After going under the assumption that I was a noble, if he became my friend, he could get in on the deal... or something like that.

It sounded very arrogant of me, even in my _own_ mind. Logically, however, it made sense. What other reason could he possibly have? He could have been a wolf in sheep's clothing, and if I went along and enforced his behaviour, he would just be disappointed in the future. To prevent that from happening, I did everything I could to avoid him.

"Hey, Aozora." He said it casually to me, as it had become a daily occurrence. I've seen him much more hot-blooded (in gym class, during any sort of playful game, he was _insane. _Don't even get me started with him _and_ Tanaka), but it was doubtful he'd act that way to someone he barely knew.

Almost on instinct, I muttered out a "Good mor—" before stopping myself. I turned away from him, walking straight to my seat.

So, every morning, he would bid me a good morning, and I wouldn't answer. I _did_ realize that I seemed like a total _jerk_ for doing this, but I had already made up my decision. This was my new routine—or rather, you could say, my old routine.

However, he did something else that exceeded my expectations.

After changing into my school shoes from sneakers, I turned to head to class, where I was met by a guy with ridiculously fashioned hair.

This startled me somewhat, as I had to stop my already-in-motion feet to keep from bumping into him, causing my feet to stutter.

At first, he seemed to have a serious expression, but it widened into a smile. "Hey, Aozora."

I was sure he would've given up by now, unless he was too dense to notice that I was purposefully avoiding him. I turned my eyes away and walked past him.

Before I could call coast clear, he called my name again. "Aozora, wait."

I bit my lip. If this guy was going to be so persistent, then I only had one choice. "What do you want?"

His expression was quickly replaced with confusion. "Huh?"

"Listen, do you want money? I... I can give you some. Just... why won't you leave me alone?" It sounded awkward and rude to me. It probably was.

Nishinoya looked at me, an eyebrow raised, mouth slightly agape. He looked very, very confused. "What? When did I say anything about money?"

It didn't make sense. "You haven't done that with any other girl. What makes _me_ so special?"

Nishinoya's response was instantaneous, as if it required no thought. He gave a proud look and pointed a finger directly at me. "It's 'cause you're shorter than me!"

My eyes stared at him in astonishment for a moment, processing what he had just said. Even though there was no sense of manipulation in his voice, I was convinced of what he just said—both because I couldn't find any flaws in it logically, and that it was (for both ends) sadly true.

Then... in that case... "Well..."

"Hm?"

I inhaled deeply. "It's... a misunderstanding!" Would a 'sorry' even cut it? I jumped to some of the absolute _worst_ conclusions about it. I felt like I was making it sound like a misunderstanding, but I was probably just the one being a jerk about it. "I thought you were trying to take advantage of me. After you figured out the rumors, you suddenly became nicer to me. It wasn't the first time someone tried to do that, either, so please don't think that I'm treating you differently. I'm sorry if I disappointed you—I didn't mean to cause trouble..."

It was my first time clearing up a misunderstanding.

He looked at me with an expression that, if I had to express it in words, would be a flat out '_What._' Such an expression that looked like he had just heard something so head-tiltingly bizarre, so incredibly stupid, that even he, one of the most impulsive people I knew, couldn't voice a response.

"Alright, Aozora." He snapped out of his confusion quickly enough and looked at me with a determined look, and, with his chest puffed out as if it showed some sort of superiority, pointed to himself using his thumb. "I'll prove that I actually want to be your friend!"

I was dyed pure white in shock. "What?"

* * *

Why I thought my plan would work against Nishinoya, I'll never know. He was just so unpredictable, spontaneous, and _reckless_ that there was no way I would ever have created a strategy that would be one hundred percent effective against him.

After listening to a few conversations silently, I learned a bunch of things. It turns out that stalking people is the best way to find out gossip, apparently.

I made a mental list of the things I found out about Nishinoya, based off of what others gossiped about him.

1\. He's book-dumb.

2\. He plays volleyball. He's really good. For that matter, Tanaka was also on the team.

3\. Tanaka and him are tight.

4\. He likes a second year named Shimizu Kiyoko. She's a beauty, according to gossip. And she received much higher praise than he did when it came to gossip.

5\. He was friends with Aozora Kotori.

The fifth had only been created recently. The predecessor to this happened the day after his confrontation.

He had said he'd 'prove that he actually wanted to be my friend', but I was very skeptical on how he'd manage that.

When I walked into class, Nishinoya immediately walked up to me with Tanaka.

Nishinoya gave his confident smile. "Hey, Aozora."

I looked up at Tanaka. Why was everyone so tall? Tanaka looked at me with this glint of disdain and shock in his eyes that distantly reminded me of the yakuza*. Was he part of that kind of thing? It made Nishinoya's hair make a bit more sense.

According to what people say, both Tanaka and Nishinoya had a not-so-unrequited love for Shimizu-senpai, a second-year manager of the volleyball club, and Nishinoya had been completely fine with talking to me. I hadn't expected Tanaka to be uncharacteristically silent around me. Whether it was due to the fact that he didn't like talking to girls and/or the rumors that haunted my everyday life, I wasn't too sure.

"Good morning Nishinoya-kun, Tanaka-kun." My response was a bit late.

There was a bit of a silence, and Nishinoya elbowed Tanaka. "C'mon, Ryuu."

"Morning..." it sounded forced and staggering. How rude.

Nishinoya sighed, knowing that was probably the best he'd get from Tanaka at the moment. "I'll talk to you after school. See ya!" He said it in his usual enthusiastic, bubbly way.

"See? See? I told you she was nice!" Nishinoya acted as though he had just won a bet.

"Oi, oi, what are you thinking?" Tanaka looked at him, and I couldn't tell if it was supposed to scare Nishinoya or show how scared _he_ was.

"I dunno. I made her a promise, and I'll definitely make it." Nishinoya gave his usual carefree but confident grin.

Then, I stopped and thought, _he might not be as uncool as I thought_. Though what he said was embarrassing, but at the same time, I didn't really... never mind. I got rid of that follow-up on my thought quickly._  
_

In my stunned silence, I had missed something huge. "A-After school...?!"

* * *

"I don't understand...! Don't you have volleyball today? Seriously, you must have _something_ better to do than hang out with me! I mean, things at my house aren't _that_ easygoing! I'd have to at least _tell_ my parents that I'm going out. Ah, and then they might ask with who, and where! And you seem pretty loose about this kind of thing, so you probably don't have anything planned out either. I don't want to trouble you or anything by having you _wait_ for me while I ask, so really, it's fine! I understand that you want to be a _friend_, but..." I rambled on and on to him after school, trying to persuade him to better spend his time on something else.

Nishinoya was listening, but at the same time, he wasn't. This was most evident through his blank stare at me that told me he had lost me after my third sentence.

"Uh... well, the basketball club has the gym booked out today, and I really don't have anything better to do, since Ryuu has to go help sis with something." Nishinoya replied to everything he had managed to comprehend.

"Like I said, I'd need to tell my parents, and you really don't need to wait for me..."

"Why don't you just call them?"

I stared at him in defeat.

Within twenty minutes, after calling my parents, we found ourselves somewhere downtown. I looked around, constantly spinning my head like a five-year old. On the other hand, Nishinoya looked right at home.

I had only seen the city and doing things with friends in books. I imagined we'd do things like karaoke, or go to an udon shop.

"I'm going to take a wager and say you didn't have anything planned, so what are we going to do now?" I looked at him. While my expression remained nonchalant, my eyes were sparkling.

He looked around. "After the bus ride, how much money do you have left?"

I opened my bag to get my wallet.

And then—

"AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!"

My sudden outburst seemed to even shock Nishinoya, understandably. I began inhaling and exhaling so quickly that I wouldn't be surprised if my face turned blue due to hyperventilation.

"A-Aozora?! What happened?!" Nishinoya seemed genuinely concerned.

"I... I can't find my wallet." I managed to breathe out those words.

"Eh?! You mean it got stolen?!"

"N-No... I didn't think I needed it since I wasn't going to buy food or a drink since I brought my own lunch today. I have a bit of pocket change, b-butIleftmywalletathome,and" My words became slurred as my speech went faster.

Nishinoya stared at me with his blank expression (which I had gotten used to). He adapted to the situation like usual after those few seconds of comprehension. "Whoa, that was a surprise..."

"What do you mean?! It's a big deal!" I was a bit frustrated at how lightly he was taking my mistake. Doesn't he know that this inconvenienced him greatly? Now this limited the choices of where we could go, and even if we did, he would have to pay for it. Even _thinking_ it seemed selfish and a horrible inconvenience. He even went so far as to invite me.

He thought for a second. "You said you had a bit of pocket change. How much?"

I counted the approximate in my head. "U-Um... 500 yen...?"

"500 yen? That's way more than enough, so don't worry!" He gave a reassuring smile. "Wow, that was really shocking. Up until now, I took you for an emotionless girl kind of character."

Due to the jump in topics and my panic, I wasn't sure how to answer. Hell, I was hardly processing information. I really, really, didn't understand how he could be so relaxed about... everything!

Ignoring my continued panic, he gave a grin and pulled me away. When I recollected myself properly, we were walking near a park, and there was a Gari-Gari kun popsicle in my hand.

"These popsicles are the _best!_" To say the least, Nishinoya seemed very... passionate about the particular brand. "_And _they're only 60 yen!"

"_Profiterole_..." I spoke the name of the flavour I had gotten in English. It was especially hard to pronounce. I vaguely remembered him asking something about my favourite flavour at the convenience store.

"Pu-Purohuiteroru...?" He seemed confused. Then again, I _had_ been speaking English. If you were to change it to kanji, that would roughly translate to something ridiculous like 'purofu, have terror!'

"Ah, sorry. 'Shuukuri-mu'. The flavour of my popsicle. Also, about popsicles... is that really the kind of thing to be getting in _February__?_" I gave him a questionable sideways glance.

"Gari-Gari kun is delicious _all_ times of the year!" He said that proudly.

"It's like, _one degree _outside."

He either didn't hear me or chose to ignore me, because he switched topics. "Anyway, it's kind of funny how you, the 'rich girl', forgot her wallet..." Seeing my dejected, lifeless state at the mention of my shame, he shook his hands vigorously. "No, no! I didn't mean it like that. Sorry, Aozora."

I returned to normal quickly enough. Suddenly, I received a sudden stroke of realization. "Actually, Nishinoya-kun, there's something I need to tell you..."

He looked back at me, since I had stopped moving. He seemed nonchalant about it at first, but then was a little confused. "H-Hey, what's up? You're kinda making me nervous."

Was he really nervous? I found it hard to believe with such a lax guy has him. "Well, the rumors... aren't true. Or, well, um, they are, but they're too much of a stretch. Y-You know, the ones concerning me being noble or sheltered. I'm sorry for lying to you, deceiving you, or letting down your expectations of me..." I bowed in apology.

I had planned to tell him the truth later. After all, I looked at the two scenarios.

One was where he was actually planning to become my friend. If so, then after finding out I lied, he may not have wanted to become friends with a liar. So, if he didn't want to become friends now, it wouldn't be too late.

The second was if he was still going to become my friend because of my money. If so, then I probably wasted his time.

Regardless of the circumstances, as shown at the positive and negatives of the situation, the best option out of 'tell him later' and 'tell him now' would be the latter.

"Oh, is that all?" He gave his imperturbable optimistic smile. "I told you before, and I'll do it as many times as you need me to. I don't care about that."

He looked at me confidently. I didn't know how to look back at him, so I averted my eyes. Through my peripheral vision, I saw him begin to walk.

_Wasn't that really cool...?_ "...I guess." I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." My voice came out a bit shriller than usual and I hurried up to him.

* * *

It was almost new year, which signaled the end of our first year. I felt a bit perturbed that nothing had changed since Nishinoya became my friend.

While I was usually uncomfortable with change, I found that I hadn't minded the sudden changes with Nishinoya, leading me to believe if the change was positive, I wouldn't mind. I wanted that kind of positive change again, but I found it unfair if I had to leave Nishinoya to initiate every change in my daily life.

I didn't think this would be a repeated action, though.

Immediately, when I walked into the classroom, I saw Nishinoya leaning backwards dangerously in his chair to talk to Tanaka, who sat two seats behind him. When he saw me come in, he gave a grin.

I walked over to him before he could start his routine. I took a deep breath. Yeah, it'd be okay. I practiced this enough times.

"_Gu... Guten Morgen!_" I felt like that came out louder than it was meant to.

"Gu... te... mo... ru... ke...?" Nishinoya tilted his head, trying to re-say it in the Japanese alphabet. He looked confused. Looking over to see if Tanaka got it, his expression was identical to Nishinoya's.

I would have had the exact same panic attack I had a few weeks ago when I forgot my wallet if I weren't in front of such a big crowd of my peers. Not that I hadn't _already_ made a fool of myself.

"It's German. It means good morning." I explained.

Like always, he gave me that clueless stare. "G-Good morning to you too?"

I had a feeling I was attracting attention, so I went to my desk.

I could already hear the neighboring groups whispering quietly among themselves. "Did you hear that? It's German. She's _definitely_ been overseas. I _told_ you so!"

I only knew how to count to three and say hello and good morning in German. Even that was just because of manga. So no.

Me and Nishinoya didn't really have much interaction that morning—probably due to my slip-up in the morning (but seriously, _German_. What the _hell_.) So the next time we talked was when I attempted to confront him after school.

Due to staying silent the rest of the day, I found out more news and gossip, and thus had more to talk about him. By "news and gossip", for your information, I meant relevant things. Because I wasn't going to discuss shit about so-and-so. Out loud, at least.

"Nishinoya-kun." I called out to him for the first time. Being more forward felt nice. If I got too confrontational, he might have found it annoying, yet if I stayed too sheepish, he might have thought I disliked him. So if it was just for today, I decided to be more confrontational. Or at least, the best I could.

He turned my way. I made a mental note not to trip over my words or speak in unbeknownst languages when I was speaking. Because _apparently, _it was _that hard_ for me to do. "You have a game today, right?"

"Yeah!" He looked very passionate about volleyball... to say the _least_.

"Against who?"

"Dateko High School." What an odd name. Datekougyou Koukou... I felt like it was some kind of test for a tongue twister.

"Well then, um, good luck." I smiled at him.

I became kind of concerned when he just continued staring at me. When my expression changed into confusion, it seemed to snap him back into reality.

"Wh... at?" I asked a bit hesitantly.

"You should smile more!"

"W-What?" I did realize my face was heating up, but not because I liked him. I mean, I did, but not in that way. It wasn't me being tsundere** about it, just reality. Just because he was nice to me didn't mean I liked him. The only reason that was happening was because I wasn't used to it. Plus, it _was_ pretty bold of him.

I didn't want a misunderstanding that would affect him concerning who or what I liked (which was quite common for anyone in _any_ class), but I didn't know what to do so I just stared at him.

I wish I was able to say that kind of thing without misunderstandings, too.

"Well..." Since I didn't know what to say, I changed the topic. "I wish I could watch your game, but it's an away game and I didn't ask beforehand."

"Why not just call like you did before?"

"I didn't have a need for my phone today, so I didn't bring it. I only learned about your game today. You should have told me..." I turned abruptly. "Not that it's your fault or anything! I mean, I should have brought my phone just in case. Anyway, good luck, Nishinoya-kun."

"Yeah, see you!" He gave me a grin and ran off to volleyball. Did that mean I took up too much of his time? Still, I found that it was kind of nice having him around. It wasn't like he caused any trouble.

Hoo boy.

* * *

***yakuza - pretty much the japanese mafia. summarized, on wikipedia:**

**Yakuza are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police, call them "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "chivalrous organizations". **

****tsundere - a character who acts rude (sometimes violent) to their crush and aloof to everyone, but is sweet and loves their crush on the inside. **

**oh wow i did not expect this to take an entire, what, two weeks? dang.**

**it was not edited when i first posted this and so i'm really snovorry for the inconvenience but i took it down, only for it to be re-uploaded, like, a day after. i'msosorry.**

**but the reason for that is because i got the time of the dateko match wrong. it says that 'new school year is coming up' meaning it can't be in march.**

**edit2: URGH. okay, this got really confusing, since one source i watched haikyuu on said 'new year' but the other said 'new school year', meaning that new year meant new school year. yes it can be in march.**

**i don't really have a lot for this a/n, so~!:**

**i'm gonna make a Q&amp;A for this story! you ask, i'll answer.**

**see you next edition!**

**#SSB**


	3. Argument

**Sky Ball**

**III. Argument**

* * *

**Shout-out/Thank you to Bergliot, RosemaryThief, akagame hime chan, Shadow of Many and Blubber (Guest) for reviewing/following/favouriting this story!**

* * *

Considering Nishinoya would always be in an excessively good mood after a game, I walked in the classroom expecting to get jumped by him.

But I was wrong. When I came into class, I knew something was wrong immediately.

Of course, I wasn't _that_ sensitive. I wasn't worried because he hadn't said 'good morning' like he usually would, though I admit that was _part_ of the cause. The scene laid out before me had our usual classroom, where everyone was chatting away. There was only one error.

Nishinoya was _working._

Like, on actual work. Not just trying to memorize some volleyball procedures or hand gestures that signaled for him to go somewhere or whatever. It was boring old algebra. To add to the boredom, it was _slopes._

So naturally, I knew something was wrong.

"Good morning..." I praised myself silently for not making some stupid mistake. Like German.

"Morning." He said it, but it felt different.

By 'different', I didn't mean he said some new, spectacular 'GOOD MORNING' every day. I can't really describe how it sounded. It was the same sound you'd make when saying 'drop dead'. I wasn't sure if it was intended at me or someone or something else.

I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but if _I_ was wrong and _he_ was fine, then it would look really stupid on my account. He _could_ have just been tired, or something. Volleyball _does_ tend to require a plethora of physical effort.

Plus, if he _was_ either tired or sad, then in both cases, he might not want me to talk to him. A lot of people like being left alone when they're down.

Then again, they also like having someone to talk to...

Since there was a 5:2 ratio of alone:talk in terms of chances of what I should do, I decided to play it safe and leave him alone, wondering if the team won or lost their game. If they won, that would tip the scales dramatically... but because it was ambiguous, I still didn't say anything.

Must have been a pretty damn hard game, since Tanaka looked out of it too.

* * *

The mornings at school were, by far my favourite time of the day. I mean, I have math, which isn't that hard once you know the rules, and I was always greeted by a friend.

Today, I felt like I was reverting to the days before I got to know Nishinoya. Yesterday, we hadn't talked at all, save for that weak 'good morning'. He still attended volleyball practice, though. Should I have talked to him about it after all?

_I hate making bad decisions. _

So, around lunch time, I saw Nishinoya leave the classroom for the first time that day. I was curious as to where he was going, but first I had to confirm something.

"... Tanaka-kun." I stood in front of his desk. I had to hurry, or else I wouldn't be able to find out where he was going.

Notably, Tanaka was in a better mood than yesterday. On a scale of 1 - 10, with 5 being his normal, I'd say he was at about a 4 or 3.5 right now.

"Ah, Aozora-san!" Tanaka straightened like I had shocked him with a taser or something. Whatever.

"Karasuno... did... you win the game, or lose the game two days ago? Against Datekougyou." I specified the details. I heard they called it 'Dateko' for short. Should I have used that instead?

"What's it matter to you?" He gave a threatening look. I would almost call it comedic, but I couldn't tell if he was serious or not. I debated whether he was actually part of the yakuza or not.

Ahh, then again, why _did_ it matter to me? 'Because I'm friends with Nishinoya-kun' didn't seem like a good enough excuse. It was none of my business, and if I was _really_ friends with him, then why didn't I just ask _him_ instead of Tanaka? Yet, here I was, disturbing him. In my self-evaluation, I almost forgot I was on a time limit.

"I don't have time for this, Tanaka-kun." I gave an unperturbed look. If he _was_ trying to be threatening, maybe it would be polite to say it didn't work? No, that would be the opposite. The best I could do would be to act unaffected.

His expression went back to normal. "We lost."

He seemed almost surprised that I hadn't reacted. Oh well, there was nothing I could do about it now.

"Thank you. I'm sorry for disturbing you." I bowed my head in respect and left the room, walking as quick as I could in the hallways, and walking normally whenever I spotted an authority figure.

* * *

I caught Nishinoya near the third years' classrooms and the Vice Principal's office. He was confronting an absurdly tall third-year (or so I assumed).

I recalled my stalker database and accessed he was Azumane Asahi. I was slightly concerned, since I heard he was involved in some kind of illicit activities after school, involving drugs and girls.

"Why didn't you come to club activities yesterday?" Nishinoya looked at Azumane with a look I didn't think I'd see on Nishinoya's face.

Since Azumane was believably on the volleyball team, I hoped that the 'club' meant the 'volleyball club' and not some druggie slang term I was not aware of.

"There's a volleyball tournament right after the new school year, you know."

"Because there's nothing fun about hitting spikes that don't go through." Azumane seemed hesitant when responding. "Even if you recover the ball, it's useless if the attack doesn't connect, right? And, whenever my attacks are blocked, Suga feels responsible."

I was really worried, because Nishinoya's usual laid-back, bubbly, optimistic attitude seemed downright malicious at this point. "What other people think has nothing to do with it!"

It really irked me. Here I was, dedicating myself to the shadows as to not inconvenience anyone, and he was shouting like he was having a yodeling contest on top of Mount Fuji.

"Hey! Who's shouting out here?!" The Vice Principal leaned out his door.

"It's about whether you still want to hit spikes!" Nishinoya continued to yell. I caught a forlorn look on Azumane's face for just a moment, which didn't make sense.

Azumane began to walk away from the scene.

"Asahi-san!" Nishinoya tried to call after him.

"Don't cause a ruckus in the hallway!" The Vice Principal shouted. He put his hand on Nishinoya's shoulder to calm him down, but was unsuccessful.

"Shut up!" Nishinoya swung his arm violently backwards, practically elbowing the Vice Principal into the vase. It spinned around on it's pedestal and fell over, successfully breaking the pottery. The Vice Principal made out a shrill sound while Nishinoya continued shouting out for Asahi-san, who turned the corner and left.

"Hey, you! Tell me your name and class!" The Vice President called out. What an idiot. Didn't he see that didn't work out the first time? I could already hear the chatter forming around me about what they had just witnessed.

"Don't you want to spike and score again?!" Nishinoya was completely ignoring the Vice President's words.

Ahh, at this rate, Nishinoya would get himself in even more trouble. But what was I supposed to d—

As quickly as I thought of the solution, though there could have been many more, I used the spur-of-the-moment decision I had made.

"Nishinoya-kun!" I shouted it out loudly. Naturally, everyone was surprised. Half of them hadn't even heard me _talk,_ much less shout.

Nishinoya tore his gaze away from the corner Azumane had used as an escape and pivoted to look at me. I was really worried, because he had this frustrated look like he wanted to scream. I felt that now that I had averted his attention, I'd better say something.

"N-Not here. You're attracting attention... calm down..."

"Why should I _care?!_" Azumane and volleyball were obviously more important to him. Couldn't he see that I was doing everything I could? This, in itself, was hard.

Beyond that, his sentence irked me. None the less, I couldn't cause a scene here. I walked up to the center of the scene and bowed to the Vice Principal. "Please excuse us temporarily. Pardon me for the intrusion."

I grabbed him roughly by the hand. This would probably create a lot of misunderstandings, but at the moment, it's the only thing I could do. At first, I felt him try to violently take his hand out of mine, but I clenched tighter and began to dig my nails into him. I hoped he'd either think it was an accident or forgive me. In any case, he stopped resisting, and I pulled him outside of school.

"What the _hell,_ Aozora?!" Nishinoya yelled at me.

"Listen, you... you need to... calm down..." I tried to keep my voice leveled.

"Shut up! It's none of your business!"

"Shh! They'll still be able to hear you, at the volume you're speaking at...!"

It seemed that nothing could calm him down. "I thought I made it clear in there that I _didn't care_!"

It was _that line_ again. That _phrase_ that ticked me off _so much._

"This is between me, the volleyball, and Asahi-san! You have nothing to do with it, so quit sticking your nose in other people's businesses!"

What? He didn't even acknowledge _anything_ I was saying, did he? He didn't realize _any_ of the trouble he was causing for others, _did he?_ He didn't realize _any _of the consequences that came along with his actions.

He was only focused on his tunnel-vision of himself, Azumane and volleyball.

"C... Calm down, Nishi—"

"Why should I?! He _deserves it!_"

And then I snapped.

* * *

It didn't take me long to realize what I'd just done. To be specific, it took about five seconds—just as I left Nishinoya's field of view.

I was the world's biggest jerk. Or at least, I felt like such.

I had just shouted at the only guy who had bothered to befriend me. At the time, when I was angry, I had thought of it as 'having him see the reality of the situation.' To be perfectly honest, that was exactly what I did. But I didn't have to put it in _that way_.

One of the few times I decide to be more confrontational, and I do it to piss off a friend. Great. Things are looking great.

_"Normally, people have at least a speck of common sense to not fight in front of the Vice Principal's office."_

_"Sure, you don't care. That's great. You should be awarded a medal for how much you don't care. Guess what? Others do."_

_"Thinking is required, Nishinoya."_

To others, it was probably really hard to imagine me saying that kind of thing. Well, aside from me and Nishinoya, since he had been the one to experience my rude manner firsthand.

I was being realistic, but I didn't need to say it in that manner. I could have just said it normally, _without_ all the offhand comments.

Everyone had bad days, and I just had to fight with him on his. I could possibly have been the worst friend ever. Most people had _problem solving _skills, but apparently, I didn't. This was probably the reason why I didn't have friends. I was such a bad one. This was probably the reason why my old friend left me, this was probably the reason why Nishinoya was most likely never going to talk to me again.

When I thought of that, I suddenly felt a lot worse than I did before. He wasn't going to talk to me anymore. He'd probably hate me forever. I mean, up until now, I was obedient, quiet, heck, downright sheepish. Today though, I was a back-talking little scamp.

Then I felt bad for feeling bad. I had gone so much as to say such rude things right to his face, and now I felt bad about it? In that case, I shouldn't have done it in the first place. I _deserved_ to feel bad. It shouldn't go, 'I'll just rudely critique his anger and then feel bad about it and I'll be forgiven.' That wouldn't be fair.

After feeling bad about feeling bad about feeling bad about feeling bad, I just, in summary, felt like shit. I wanted to say sorry, but there wouldn't really be apologies to cut it.

When he didn't come back to the classroom, it only made me feel even worse.

_I'm sorry, Nishinoya-kun..._ I knew those words wouldn't come to light, even though they were so easy to say.

I stared at his seat quite a lot that day.

* * *

During spring break, I'd been given a lot of time alone to think about everything I could do for Nishinoya. I thought about it so much that between thinking, studying, and setting up supplies for next year, I forgot I was going to be a second-year, and most likely in a different class than him. It was easy to say that I had a bit of a tunnel-vision because of my mistake.

I could still come into contact with Nishinoya through his club, somehow. Then, maybe I could apologize there.

By the end of break, I came up with a resolution. That was how I ended up in front of a door with a sign labelled 3-2 on the _very first day of my second year,_ waiting for a certain third year to come out. Most people passed by me—whether it was because they didn't care or genuinely didn't notice me, I didn't really care.

"Um, Shimizu Kiyoko-senpai, am I correct...?" I asked a certain girl.

The rumors weren't kidding when they said that she was a beauty. She was. Her black hair was straighter than mine, her bespectacled, blue-eyed gaze, and even the mole at the bottom of her lips radiated the 'Ice Queen' kind of look. Heck, even her name represented it somewhat: Clear water, clear child.

She turned to me like it was nothing. "Yes."

"I've heard you were the manager of the club, and so I have a request. I'm sorry if this comes off a bit presumptuous, but if I could, may I... watch the boys' volleyball practice?"

Shimizu seemed to eye me up and down. Seriously, what was this? Was she trying to 'see if I was worthy material' to be watching the boys' practice? It was just practice, right? What was the quota to be 'worthy material?' I just didn't understand why it was taking so long.

"I don't see a problem with it."

It seemed too easy. Despite all my thought, her response was very straightforward. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's fine."

... Okay. That happened.

* * *

I knew nothing about sports. I mean, I participated in track and field back in elementary school, but we all know that in elementary sports, your only job is to 'run and hit the ball'. It wasn't like our school was renowned in sports, either.

So all those words that Nishinoya used with Tanaka like 'ribero', 'seta', 'u~ingusupaika' were absolutely foreign to me. It didn't help that Nishinoya and Tanaka had the worst Japanglish I had heard in a while. It was absolutely _incomprehensible_. When I tried to make sense of it, 'ribero' sounded like 'libre', which meant free, and I had no _clue_ what that 'winged spy car' was. Or was it 'wing spiker'? Either way, it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

I followed behind Shimizu to the gym, where we were immediately met with a tall, black-haired guy and short orange-haired guy arguing in front of the doors.

"No matter how obnoxious you are, I'll do my best to keep from seeing you!" The short one said. Or maybe it would be hypocritical to call him short, since I had probably grown, at maximum, half a centimeter during break.

"That's my line, you idiot!" The black-haired guy yelled.

I expected the volleyball club to be more mature. Then again, judging from Nishinoya and Tanaka...

Anyway, I didn't know whether to rise up and take the situation. They were standing directly in front of the gym doors, and it wasn't like I could take the fire exit inside. Ah, but it would be rude to interrupt an argument. After all, the last time I did anything even remotely like that...

"Um," Shimizu spoke up, "Can you let me through?"

They stared at her for a second before moving to the sides, still retaining their gazes on her as she walked inside, bag in hand.

I was about to go in when Shimizu was stopped by Tanaka. "Kiyoko-san, good to see you. I'll get that for you!" He attempted to grab her bag.

"It's fine. I'll do it myself." She replied without any fluctuations in her voice.

"Kiyoko-san, you're as beautiful as ever today!" She didn't give a response and just walked away. Tanaka stared at her for a bit, before twisting and holding himself as though he had just gotten the chills. "Ooh, it turns me on when she ignores me!"

"Me as well." I went after her, the two guys outside shifting their attention from her only when I spoke up. I bowed. "Pardon me for interrupting."

I walked in, unnoticed, going behind Tanaka as to not avert his attention from Shimizu. A third year gave a forced smile to the two boys outside as he shut the door on them.

"Excu—"

"C'mon, Tanaka, let's get back to practice..." A grey/beige haired third year said, trying to calm my former classmate down. Successful, Tanaka sighed and went back onto the court.

I didn't really want to speak up again, since I didn't know any of the third years and saying 'I'm here to watch you guys play' was creepy, and fairly dubious in context.

"Um..."

"Hi, uh, who are you?" I whipped my head around to see a third year staring down at me, though with a friendly smile. I was finally noticed, huh...

"Sorry to intrude or distract you," I said right away, "I'm Aozora Kotori, class 2-5."

He looked a bit surprised after hearing my name, but then reverted to his original smile. I'm glad that he didn't react that much. "Ah, no, it's fine. Why are you here?"

I did my best to refrain from saying 'uh'. I paused for a bit. "Well, Shimizu-senpai said that it was fine if I watched practice. I'm very interested in volleyball, actually."

I had deduced that no matter how I put it, it would sound creepy, and so I just said it straightforwardly and hoped there wouldn't be any misunderstandings. Not that I believed he was the kind of guy to think that way, or anything.

"Oh, well, yeah. I don't see any real problem with it either, so it's fine." He said.

"Thank you. Do you want me to sit down here, or in the stands?"

"Either's fine with me. It's not like we have a whole lot of visitors, anyway." He took a glance at the empty stands.

"I'll sit up in the stands for now, since it's a special day and I don't want to disturb you during your recruiting week."

He smiled. "I don't really think it's all that special, but whatever you want. Thanks for coming."

He turned to return to practice. "Ah, wait..." I called out, "What's your name?"

"Sawamura Daichi, Class 3-4."

I made a mental note of that name in my head as I headed up to the stands.

I knew nothing about volleyball.

* * *

Despite only beginning to figure things out, I continued going to the volleyball club to watch.

I couldn't exactly say I _enjoyed_ myself, as I had no clue what was happening. From the stands, I looked over at the first-years, who had just joined the club recently. It really _did_ look like they were a team. At least, to my standards.

Hinata, the shortest member, finally spoke something that I understood. "Hey, that girl in the stands... she's been watching us for a while now. What's she doing here?"

Busted.

Even though I wasn't in trouble and it was totally fine for me to be here, it didn't ward away the feeling that I shouldn't have been spotted.

Tanaka narrowed his eyes at the stands before he gave an incredulous look. "Aozora?!"

There is no way I could have went to watch the volleyball club for a month without him noticing me. Then again, this _was_ Tanaka.

"Aozora?" Hinata tilted his head.

It seemed like the rumors hadn't reached the first-years yet, which made me grateful. However, my moment of pleasure was revoked instantly. "Yeah. Her parents are nobles and super protective, or something like that."

"Oh, she's Noya-san's friend, too." Tanaka added in casually.

"You're serious?" The second and third years that cared looked at him, eyes wide with shock.

"Who's Noya-san?" Hinata vocalized for the entire first-year population.

"No one important, right now." Sawamura said. I questioned why he said that now, but he would have had to undoubtedly explain it later, like when Nishinoya returned.

Hinata, surprisingly enough, dropped it. Maybe he wasn't interested anymore in the topic. I was glad, but at the same time, I kind of felt disappointed. "Okay. Once more!" Hinata switched his attention back to Kageyama, referring to the 'drill' they were doing.

"You're the one slacking off, stupid." Kageyama said, walking to the bin of volleyballs.

"What?!" Hinata called out, storming over to him too.

Despite how they acted, those two actually made a really good... partnership. Though I hadn't been here long, in their first practice, they were able to do a really fast _'quick'. _Then, during the Aoba Jousai match, they won their first (practice) game with the three first-year starters: the Kageyama/Hinata duo and Tsukishima.

Even though I didn't know a whole lot about volleyball (aside from what I could hear from the stands), I had to admit, I was kind of taking a sort of fondness to it.

This was until a week passed.

I had finished another grueling day in class, and, as it had become routinely, went to the gym after school. When I was passing by the fire exit of the gym, I heard the sound of a volleyball hitting someone's arms, before bouncing on the hardwood floor a couple of times.

I stood in front of the door. It grew quiet. I was going to enter through the front after I went around, but then heard Hinata's voice. "He's shorter than me."

Was he _really_ going to play the pronoun game just to leave me guessing who 'he' was?

"Hah?! Hey, what did you just say?!" I heard a very threatening voice yell. It sounded familiar.

"I-I'm sorry!" Hinata's voice called back again. "U-Um, how tall are you?"

"159cm!"

_Wait._

"Wow..." Hinata marveled.

"Wh-What?"

"It's the first time I've looked down on someone since I started High School Club Activities!" I heard Hinata give a pathetic sound. Was that a sob?

"Don't weep with joy about it! You're not looking that far down!" The other voice replied.

At this point, I shouldn't even say 'other voice', because I knew who it was from the moment he spoke, though I didn't want to admit it.

I heard the doors on the other side of the gym open up, and a shuffling of shoes.

Then I heard Tanaka.

"Oh, Noya-san!"

"Hey, Ryuu!"

"Nishinoya!" I heard Sawamura and Sugawara say in unison.

"Hey!" Nishinoya replied in his enthusiastic tone.

"Let me introduce you. This is Nishinoya, a second-year." Judging by the tone in Sawamura's voice, they were glad to have him back. Everyone was.

But I wasn't sure of exactly _what _I felt.

* * *

**and that concludes chapter three.**

**i don't really know what to say, so i'm gonna reply to some comments to fill up more of this space. i can't really reply to just 'good job', though i DO SO MUCH appreciate them, but i just really don't know what to say to that. so i'll skip it.**

**thank you to guest!**

**Bergliot: yeah, one of my main objectives was to keep her a bit realistic, since i LOVE the fact that haikyuu is pretty realistic. also, i'm also usually against first person (believe it or not), but i wanted to try it, and what better place than fanfiction? because if i screw up, nothing that bad happens. thank you, by the way~! i like lengthy reviews. (also, on a completely off tangent if you decide to review again, why is your account called 'Bergliot'?)**

**Shadow of Many: is this the update you were looking for? oh, and nishinoya's adorable. 'nuff said.**

**thank you to blubber!**

**i'll see you guys next time, hopefully with a good chapter!**


	4. Of Colour

**Sky Ball**

**IV. Of Colour**

* * *

**Special thanks to: queen6404, trolleypop, le random looper, harudha558, JineteHielo, Yuki Nagato998, Peri (Guest), Guest (1), Guest (2), and Bergliot for reviewing/following/favouriting this author/story!**

* * *

Here. At last, he was here.

While I wasn't sure of what I felt, I found it odd that despite all my previous preparations—my elaborate plan to apologize and everything—despite it being my only reason to have been attending volleyball practice everyday, even though I had no interest in _any_ sport, I wasn't overjoyed he was back. But I wasn't disappointed, either. Nor was I mad at him.

I began to overthink it. Would a simple 'I'm sorry' suffice for him? What if he was one of those prideful, stubborn guys who thought they were always right?

I heard them continue their conversation after Sawamura introduced Hinata and Kageyama to Nishinoya. I went on the tips of my toes and jumped slightly to see what was going on inside the gym.

"Hi!" Hinata exclaimed.

"Hey, you guys are the new first-years, huh?" Nishinoya grinned his usual grin, and pointed at Kageyama. "You, the tall guy doing serves. What middle school are you from?"

Even the calm-and-composed Kageyama seemed a bit taken aback by Nishinoya's personality. "Ki-Kitagawa Daiichi."

"Seriously?! That's a powerhouse school! No wonder you serve like that! We played a set against you and lost 2-1! Your serve was amazing back then, too!" Nishinoya exclaimed.

If I were to put his chatter in words, I don't think one exclamation point was _ever_ sufficient. Sawamura and Sugawara both parroted my thoughts, and muttered, "Noisy as ever..."

"What middle school are _you_ from?" Kageyama asked.

Nishinoya thrust a proud fist in the air. "Chidoriyama!"

Kageyama's eyes widened. Leave it to him to know every single volleyball champ. His interest was always piqued when it came to volleyball, despite his usually aloof attitude. "That's a powerhouse in its own right! Maybe... you came to Karasuno because you heard Coach Ukai was coming back, too?"

"Nah," Nishinoya said as solemnly as he could, "I came to Karasuno because... I like the girls' uniform." He clenched his fist, which would normally signify determination. "_Immensely_."

Nishinoya began making a series of poses. "Of course, all of the girls have lived up to my expectations, too!"

Weirdo. My level for respect for Nishinoya plummeted significantly. I wasn't sure whether to consider him cool or uncool at this point.

"I also like the guys' uniform! It's in black! I wore a blazer back in middle school, so I admire this uniform! And it's not in brown or grey, but black!" Nishinoya exclaimed.

"I know that feeling!" Tanaka agreed.

"The guys have cool uniforms, they have cute girl uniforms, _and_ it was close to home! It was a no-brainer!" He grinned confidently. Did this guy have a horrible reason for everything?

Nishinoya sniffed the air as if he had picked up something. Then, just like a dog spotting a squirrel, his head jerked quickly in the direction of the source—the doorway.

No, wait. Upon closer observation, coming in was... Shimizu. Wait, what the _hell?!_ He _smelled_ her presence? What?!

"Kiyoko-saaaaan! I've come to see you!" He ran towards her, arms raised, and then jumped like he was trying to save a volleyball, except his arms were outstretched.

She didn't react well to this, since she flinched the moment she heard his voice and in return to his _lovely_ affections, slapped him.

"He's like a hurricane, as usual..." Sugawara stated.

I heard Hinata suspiciously mutter something along the lines of, "A guerrilla downpour...". Whatever that meant.

"Quite the noisemaker, isn't he?" Sawamura gave a grin as though this had painfully become a daily occurrence. Which it probably _had_ been, last year. "Yet, when he plays, he's surprisingly... silent."

Would I like to see a silent Nishinoya. I had a lot of trouble believing that.

Nishinoya turned back to the guys, a suspicious hand-shaped red mark on his face while Shimizu walked elsewhere. He gave a smile. "And? Where's Asahi-san? Did he come back?"

Sawamura and Sugawara averted their eyes. Sawamura spoke as though it was a hard to discuss topic, "No."

"Wh-" Nishinoya's smile faded, and turned into that scowl I didn't like seeing. He let out a 'kh!' of air in annoyance. "That wimp!" Hinata immediately raised his arm, something he did when he sensed something dangerous. Even Kageyama leaned back a bit.

"Hey, Noya! Don't talk like that about your senpai!" Tanaka yelled back.

"Shut _up!_ A wimp is a wimp. If Asahi-san isn't coming back, then neither am I!" Nishinoya shouted at him, and stormed off.

It was a step from before. He was still yelling, but not as loud and he didn't hit anyone. Maybe he... actually took heed of my words? Did this mean... maybe, he didn't blame me...?

After he left, I took it as safe to go in.

"Hey, Aozora. You missed Nishinoya." I was shocked that Sugawara noticed me coming in. How did he know about me and Nishinoya—oh, right. Tanaka.

"Yeah, I think I did."

* * *

Whenever I went to the volleyball club, I felt like I was committing a crime of espionage, even though I wasn't doing anything illegal or not allowed. The reason being that Nishinoya, despite previously announcing he 'wasn't coming back', came ordinarily. Thus, everyday, I had to sneak past him and everyone I know who would point out my presence and walk into the stands.

I could usually accomplish this by walking in behind Shimizu, as they would immediately flock to her and she would always go in the direction opposite from the stands. Other days, when I knew there was no way I could sneak in, I just didn't go.

Regardless, there was one topic I learned was a hard one.

_'Asahi.'_

_'Asahi-san.'_

_'Asahi-senpai.'_

_'KARASUNO NO ESSU!'_

Usually, when you heard the morning sun* being discussed, you would think it was a happy one. But in the volleyball club, it would only choke the atmosphere of the gymnasium. Especially to Nishinoya.

Even though I always just watched in the stands and didn't have an 'important role to the team' or anything, I thought it would be inconsiderate of me to ignore this.

And that's how I winded up in front of classroom 3-3, to find yet _another_ third year to talk to for volleyball-related issues.

_This is a bad idea. This is _so_ a bad a idea. Remember the last time you tried to resolve something that didn't involve you? Yeah. Look how that turned out. And now you're trying to get yourself roped into the_ exact_ same thing. Genius. With the same person involved, too. It's official, I am an idiot._

I kept a conversation in my head telling me how stupid I was. I heard that the others tried to convince him to come back. For Pete's sake, Nishinoya got _suspended_ for trying to convince him, and Azumane remained undeterred. What made me any different? _  
_

But no. If I could say such rude things to Nishinoya, my energy and time would be better spent trying to resolve the issue rather than create another. Even if just once, it would be best if I at least attempted to help.

During lunch time, I saw Azumane come out of the classroom to try to get his lunch when I interrupted him. (Was that a bad idea? Maybe I should've waited 'till he was _done_ his lunch?)

I walked up to him, but he didn't notice I was there and almost hit me while walking. Not because he was being rude, but because of the incredible difference in _height._

"Excuse me. Azumane Asahi?" I called out. He looked a bit startled to suddenly see someone there.

"A-Ah, sorry... what is it?" He apologized for almost knocking me down, and then continued. The manner he spoke in was very polite. Not at all like the rumors I'd heard. Maybe, then, he could be in my situation?!

Oh my god. This was kind of scary. How was I supposed to start off? I didn't plan this at all. "Well... um... Azumane-senpai, you're on the volleyball team, right?"

He was probably getting tired of that. "Well... it's kind of a difficult situation right now. I'd say I'm not really on it right now though, so sorry, but..."

"No—I'm sorry, I shouldn't have started off with that. To be truthful, I know all about your situation." I replied. That sounded kind of creepy. This would have been so much easier if I had a script to read from, but social situations were much more unpredictable. "I know... it might not be any of my business! But, um, I think that you should return to the volleyball team."

He gave a look that I could see myself giving if I were in his situation. "Volleyball just isn't my sport anymore. Sorry to have betrayed your expectations, or anything..."

He was similar to me. I didn't know him well, but if I were in his position, then...

"You're lying." I delivered that line with a serious stare. It seemed to make him uncomfortable, but my thoughts were focused more on the truth rather than my surroundings. "What do you _really_ think?"

I doubted he would tell someone he'd just met. He didn't even know my name. "... Even if I go back, I'd just be a burden to the team."

Wow. Actually, I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get told off right there. This guy was pretty sensitive.

In any case, I guessed that he probably didn't want to tell anyone, but at the same time, did. So it must have been easier to tell me, who—presumably, to him—only had a slight connection with the club. Which wasn't that far off.

"I don't think that's right." I claimed, completely overlooking the formalities. "Aren't you just imposing your own opinion on the group? Actually, you're being even more of a burden than you would be if you were on the team, when you think of the positives and negatives."

"I don't really think you get it..."

"No. I understand it well. Think about it yourself: if you stayed on the team, you could improve yourself and not let them down again. It would provide them reassurance. It adds to the options the team can take. You're being a burden _because_ they want you back, and you're not going, which causes anxiety and stress to the team. It can lead to differences in performance play. So, why _wouldn't_ you want to return to the team?"

"I can only figure out one answer: you're worried. You might let down your team again. But—to me, at least—it seems as though you've already figured that out, haven't you, Azumane-senpai?"

He bit his bottom lip and averted his eyes.

It then dawned on me how uncomfortable he looked. Why _wouldn't_ he be uncomfortable? Wrong or right, it would cause him to misjudge me a lot, especially considering I wasn't like that at all, usually.

"Ahh! It's none of my business, though, of course! I'm sorry for misjudging you! I'm sorry for acting like a know-it-all! I'm sorry for calling you out! I will commit seppuku* one thousand times over to show how sorry I am!" I bowed in apology.

Azumane had an expression of nervousness, guilt and truth before, but now it just displayed a flabbergasted face. One that clearly read _is-this-even-the-same-person_. He must have thought I was inflicted with some kind of personality disorder, like Bipolar Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder or something. Considering my actions lately, I couldn't exactly blame him. Maybe I was going to get my period soon.

"I-I don't really think that's necessary..." Azumane looked taken aback by the sudden contrast in tone I had just shown.

"No, I definitely overstepped my boundaries! I'm sorry...!" This is what happens when you don't go in with a plan. Yup. Nope. I'm done. I made a plan to crawl into my bed forever and die. I should probably fake being sick today. And tomorrow. And forever.

"Well, your heart was probably in the right place..." Azumane looked guilty. He was probably trying to cheer me up, but he looked like he was being very honest. "But... I don't know."

_Wow, I think he might be more wishy-washy than me. And that's saying something._ I thought.

"Um, I'm very sorry for acting so confrontational or coming off as arrogant or cocky or anything in any sort of way. But... please consider it. As long as you do that, I'll have no complaints." I said casually as possible and bowed. "I'm sorry for disturbing you."

He looked a bit concerned about me, but also seemed to be taking heed of what I had said. "Yeah, no, it's fine..."

With that, I bowed my head once more and left toward my classroom.

I vowed to never doing that again.

* * *

I wasn't able to attend their practice match, since on the day of, Nishinoya was standing by the door. Wanting to continue my flawless streak of avoiding him, I left. I'd imagined he thought I transferred by then.

However, the day following, I was able to enter the club before Nishinoya and securely place myself in the stands, where I could easily duck to avoid being seen by him.

From the stands, I saw them gather around the new coach, Coach Ukai, who spoke to them.

"We're just going to have a quick scrimmage, just so I can get a bit better grasp on your individual skills, as well as to cooperate as a whole." Ukai announced. "Any objections?"

Nobody said a word, and Coach Ukai divvied up the teams, using all the members for a perfect six-on-six match.

"Hey, you're Karasuno's Manager, right? Mind playing lines?" Ukai asked Shimizu, who nodded in return, going over to a corner of the court.

"Just one more..." Ukai muttered under his breath, "Oi, do you have someone who can play lines on that side?"

Sawamura looked up and to the right in thought. Then his eyes settled on the stands. "Well, I don't know if she wants to do it, since she's not part of them team, but I _could_ ask."

"Is 'she' here right now? Because if not, forget about it."

Sawamura looked up at the stands. "Do you want to try playing lines, Aozora?"

I immediately noticed Nishinoya's line of sight dart up towards the stands. At first, he looked shocked, but then he made a face. A face I couldn't read properly. His eyebrows were knitted and he bit the bottom of his lip. Was that frustration? It looked like he wanted to say something but didn't.

Azumane, who had recently rejoined the team (or so I assumed), stared at me. His emotions were considerably easier to read._  
_

I turned away from the entire teams' expressions. "Yeah, I can do the lines, if you're willing to have me." I called out.

"Great!" Sawamura beamed before returning to his position.

In contrast to Sawamura's polite tone, Ukai cawed, "hurry up!"

As to not take up too much of their time, I went down from the stands and grabbed a flag Shimizu handed to me, and we both took our respective positions on opposite corners.

I was so used to seeing an emotive, hot-blooded Nishinoya, but he kept taking glances at me. Whenever I looked back, he would dart his eyes back to the game. It wasn't bashful or anything, but he continued to give me the feeling of something unexpressed.

None the less, he wasn't the kind of guy to let someone _completely_ distract him from the game, since he was still calling outs easy. Furthermore, he was on the line every time. It was impressive.

It was Enoshita's serve, on our side. He hit it over the net, and Sawamura received it, bumping it to the setter on their side, Sugawara.

With a flick of his hands, Sawamura volleyed the ball up into the air—a toss quite high, and further from the net, where Azumane then jumped and, with strength comparable to a bears', hit the ball with his open palm, creating a loud, resonating slapping sound that reverberated through every corner and crevice of the gym.

It was hit with an incredible amount of power—one unlike I had seen in the other members (aside from _possibly_ Kageyama's serve, but this had to be at least on par with that, if not greater). Sure enough, Nishinoya knew it was out, and didn't dive after it.

Nice call. But then I noticed it was heading straight for my nose. Time slowed down for a second.

Dodging it was impossible. Move head upwards. No. Broken teeth, jawline fracture. Move head to the side, regardless of which side. No. Cheekbone injury. Will likely lose a few teeth. Best option: hit with hardest part of the head.

I tilted my head downwards, and the ball collided with my forehead. Instantly, every single cell in the area began to flare up. I covered it and curled up into a ball, one hand still placed over my forehead, the other one lifting up the flag to signify it was out. Everyone looked at me with mixed expressions, the most evident being a rattled Azumane.

Wow. Karma struck back like a _bitch_. I tried to get Azumane back on the team by being a cocky know-it-all, and then he hits a ball that hits me straight in the face. I would have laughed at the irony if it didn't hurt like hell.

I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder after jogging over to me. "Hey, you okay? Need some ice?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I lied. My voice sounded more like a whimper. I was not _okay_. Azumane's spike fucking _hurt_. Excuse the language, but it was the easiest way to put it. "Ice would be good right now though, so I'm just gonna... go."

"Okay... well, we can live without lines for a practice game like this, I guess. Shimizu, wanna go with her to go get some ice?" Ukai asked. Shimizu gave yet another non-verbal gesture of her approval. I stood up and walked with her.

Once my headache became bearable, I found myself sitting in a chair, my legs crossed. The armrest propped up my elbow, which in turn, propped up my head. More appropriately, an ice pack propped up my head, since it occupied the space between my hand and forehead.

I looked at the room around me, and tried to trick myself into thinking that I _liked_ the way the room spun, so really, I wasn't that hurt because I was hit in the face with a volleyball. At all.

That plan failed quickly.

Shimizu had gone back to practice, leaving me alone in a spinning room. I wasn't even completely sure _where _I was—for all I knew, Shimizu Kiyoko could have been a kidnapper and just committed a _crime_ and I wouldn't know. Why? Because of an aching head pain.

"A-Are you okay...?!" I heard a deep voice ask suddenly. I recognized it as Azumane's.

"Yep. Fine. You really don't need to worry about me. You should get back to practice." I told him. Even _speaking_ hurt.

"No, it's okay... practice is over..." Azumane said. "Are you sure you're okay? I'm so sorry!"

I was struck with a very strong sense of déjà vu. I remember a very similar situation, except with a role reversal.

"It's really okay, don't worry about it!" Technically, it _was_ my fault for not having fast enough reflexes to dodge it, _and_ deciding to play lines.

"Not to mention it was _out! _Oh, but it wouldn't be okay if it was in, either! I... I really didn't mean to..." He was unexpectedly nervous, going back to his 'Gentle Giant' demeanor. "Can... I get anything for you?"

"Uh, yeah. Practice is over, so could you, maybe, get me my bag? It's in the stands. If it's—ow—not too much trouble for you."

"Yeah, o-okay..." Azumane passed the doorway when I heard him say, from just outside the door, "Nishinoya? Practice is over, what're you still doing here?"

"A-Ahh, nothing really, just... yeah... you know, that kinda thing." I heard him reply.

"Oh, you're probably checking if Aozora's okay, right? She's inside." Azumane said, and I heard his thundering footsteps become softer, indicating that he had left.

As that happened, Nishinoya entered with a similar expression as earlier—the main difference was that I could read one of his emotions: worry.

"Aozora, you... okay?" Nishinoya asked, his concern plastered on his face.

"Yeah! Fine!" I replied, putting as much effort for normalcy in my voice as possible.

There was an awkward silence. This couldn't go on forever. He was here right now. When else was I going to tell him, if not now?

"Hey, I'm—" we said in unison, though mine was phrased a bit more formally. Either way, whatever he _or_ I was going to say was cut off with my wince of pain, since I had moved my head from its pedestal of ice.

"Are you okay?" Nishinoya asked, a bit louder that time and with a different tone that I took as tacit worry. He half-lifted up his hand as if he wanted to do something, but knew that he couldn't.

"I'm fine. What where you going to say? Sorry for cutting you off." See? Just then, I was able to say sorry. Why couldn't I say sorry for a _serious_ incident?

"Hey, Aozora, you know that day I yelled at you and you got mad? Well... sorry. I know you're still kind of mad at me, but I just... wanted to say sorry." Nishinoya's eyes kept darting from my face to the wall around me.

"No." I stated, very bluntly.

"What?"

"You're the one who's supposed to be mad at me, so why are you apologizing...? It's my fault."

Nishinoya looked at me for a few seconds. It seemed he was actually taking this seriously. When it came to his friends, he was unexpectedly... considerate.

"How is it your fault? You were just—"

I cut him off. "I didn't need to state it so rudely..."

In return, he cut me off. "So what? Jeez, why're you acting like this? Why do _you_ have to take the blame for everything all the time?!" Nishinoya addressed me almost as loudly as he did the day with Azumane. Noticing he was going too far with his tone, he bit his lip and turned his head roughly to the side.

Initially, I thought that he was mad at me, but I could tell that he wasn't, despite his actions and tone. He was _actually_ kind of sorry. Nishinoya wasn't just giving his usual carefree attitude, and was shoving all jokes aside. So concerned that he was willing to get mad over it, in deep contrast to his usual effervescent attitude that made my head tilt and wonder, '_how can you be so relaxed?'_

But he wasn't. He took things seriously, too. Maybe that was the meaning when Sawamura said, 'unexpectedly quiet'.

How _would _this situation end? What _could _he do to appease me and all would be forgiven?

Nothing. Not because it was his fault, but because my insecurities would get in the way. I was overthinking it so much that, once I actually thought about it, _nothing_ would sate me, since there was no perfect way to do it. Most people would just say 'sorry', and the receiver would say, 'nah, dude, it's okay!' and that would be over. But for me, nothing sounded right.

So I was going to take responsibility and resolve the conflict.

"You're right. I always take the blame. But the both of us are at fault. So I'm sorry I got mad, and I forgive you for getting mad as well." I tried to sound determined, but it came out as hesitant.

He gave me a surprised look. Was it because I took the initiative to reconcile?

"Sorry for shouting and getting on your nerves. It's okay you got mad?" Nishinoya followed my forgiving format, and seemed to ask at the end if he did it right. To give him an answer, though unarticulated, I took the ice pack off my head and smiled.

Nishinoya looked at me for a second longer than usual, then turned his head away like he did before. Had I done something wrong? I couldn't identify his expression properly, but then glanced back at me and gave a smirk, as though he were trying to suppress a smile.

_So, he tricked me then...?_ I guessed. I had no clue about his expression.

But, at the time, I didn't really care and settled for a contradictory reason, despite it opposing my usual preference for everything to make sense.

I didn't care, because everything was okay for now.

* * *

The next day, I was ecstatic. I even felt like walking with an extra bounce in my step (but ultimately decided against it, because that would attract too much attention).

The reason being was because everything was okay. Concerning me and Nishinoya, everything was perfect the way it was.

I was slightly embarrassed at how happy I had been in contrast to any attitude I had shown the days immediately prior, all because of a boy (which was even more embarrassing when put in _that_ sense) but at the same time, I didn't care. Because, like aforementioned, everything was okay.

I was doing a casual walk-and-talk with him after my class ended, as we were heading to the gym for his volleyball practice.

"Actually, Shouyo got spiked by Asahi-san too, earlier this week..." Nishinoya laughed.

Ouch.

"What's your basis for calling people by their first names? You call them 'Tsukishima' and 'Kageyama', but then you say 'Shouyo'." I was slightly curious.

Nishinoya shrugged. "I guess I just have to know them well enough and make sure they're not uncomfortable with it.

"So why don't you call me Kotori?" I asked the question out of genuine curiosity, but then realized the flirtatious implications. I couldn't deny it or take it back either, in fear of even _more_ of a misunderstanding. I didn't know if my face was heating up or not.

He, on the other hand, didn't seem to detect it. "I always thought you didn't like it," he admitted. "But huh... what about _you_ calling people by their first names?"

"Huh? Oh... I don't know... it just feels uncomfortable, I guess..." I answered sheepishly.

"You don't like to look people in the eye when they're talking to you, either. You're actually... shy, aren't you!" He smiled, almost in a teasing manner.

"I'm allowed to look wherever I want when I talk to others." I objected. I didn't want that conversation to continue, so I changed the topic. "You, um, have a game soon, right? The training camp, I think... Nekoma?"

"Oh, yeah, right!" He grinned.

"Are you excited?" The side of my mouth curled up into a smile.

"Definitely!" He exclaimed with starry vehemence in his tone.

I figured. For someone who hadn't gotten to play since last year, that must've been really important to him. That was only a natural reaction.

I frowned, recalling something. "Oh, but... then you won't be here for a few days..."

"Ahh, right! Thank god!" The libero (riberouda? I don't even know) exclaimed. At first I was confused as to what he was so grateful about, but then my eyes narrowed.

"You just want an excuse not to do your homework, don't you?" I frowned.

He sighed. "Figured out, huh..."

"Obviously!" I scolded in jest.

We got to the gym, and as soon as he walked in, he raised his hand straight up in an odd way. A gesture of greeting (most likely), as it was accompanied with his "Yo!"

"Eh...? Who's tha-aah! The girl that Asahi-senpai pegged yesterday!" Hinata exclaimed in his epiphany. I saw Azumane twitch from the side. No doubt Hinata saw it as a stroke of genius, being able to remember such little information. Not realizing the fact that he had asked who I was _before_ and such was explained. "What're you doing here?!"

I had been coming every day, but since Nishinoya had come, I'd made an active effort to conceal myself. Had this been a mystery or horror flick, I would have made quite the daring stalker. Now that we had become friends again, I had apparently gotten careless in my espionage, as a majority of the volleyball team had halted practice to look at who was accompanying Nishinoya.

Was it really _that_ unusual for them to have a visitor?

"Yeah, me and Aozora were in a class together last year!" Nishinoya grinned.

_Aozora and I,_ I mentally complained.

For some reason, everyone seemed suspicious.

"What, does she _like_ him, or something?" Tsukishima asked, with a smirk that plainly read _I'm-a-little-shit_.

Obviously, I could detect the snide remark, and what he really meant. And, above anything else, I knew how to get myself out of these types of situations—and people like him.

It was difficult shoving my emotions down my throat, but I managed to come out with a straight, "Yes, of course."

Everyone who had heard my statement immediately looked at us (other than Shimizu-senpai, who had a deadpanned face. If I _did_, it might have meant less hounding from the kid, so it was to her advantage). The tension in the room was still there, but different. Even Tsukishima looked surprised (no doubt initially taking me for the tsundere* type of girl).

They were acting suspicious because they thought I was Nishinoya's girlfriend, huh.

"H-Hah?! Aozora, what are you saying all of a sudden?!" Nishinoya's face burned red. He didn't strike me as the type to get flustered, but he wasn't as dense as I originally took him for. His actions were definitely contradictory to my theory.

It was kind of fun to tease him, but clearing up the misunderstanding was first. "What? Nishinoya-san is very dedicated to volleyball, and he does quite good at it. I'm not very good at sports to be frank. So I admire him very much." I stated plainly, and with the word 'admire', the tension and shock seemed to fly away.

"O-Oh... _that's_ what you meant... haha, I'm flattered..." He was legitimately tricked, and his words were contradictory to his tone—purely for the sake to cover up how embarrassed he was, as his face was still tinted pink and he was rubbing the back of his neck and looking away.

"Yeah, I see what you mean!" Hinata exclaimed with a smile that befit his last name*. "I mean, Nishinoya-senpai is our libero, so naturally, he's really good at receiving! On the other hand, I can't receive that well, even though it's the most important thing in volleyball..."

It would have been insensitive for me to ask how he made it on the team if he wasn't able to receive well, so instead I switched to, "I've been looking at practice for a while now. Even if you're good at receiving, there's definitely something they're keeping you for."

Urgh... if such saccharine words were spoken to me, I would definitely have marked it off as superficial—just to make me feel better after niggling myself. However, Hinata beamed. I could have sworn his eyes twinkled. "Really?!"

I nodded. "Really."

"Didja hear that, Kageyama?! _She_ even said so!" Hinata turned towards the tall first-year.

"Don't let it go to your head!" Kageyama scolded.

"I don't wanna hear that from _you _of all people!" Hinata retorted.

They glared at each other for a moment, then whipped their heads away from each other simultaneously with a pout and "tch!"

I actually found it very awkward to be there. I knew nothing about the sport. Maybe I should have studied it before accompanying Nishinoya to the gym. It was ridiculous while Nishinoya was _gone_, where I went nearly a _month_ without knowing anything about the sport. I mean, I had just figured out it was '_Libero'_ and not '_Ribra'_ a few days ago.

I decided my plan of action to get out of the situation I had created for myself. "Anyway, good luck at practice, all of you guys. Nishinoya-kun, I'll, um, be at the library."

I waved and turned around, hearing the slamming of balls behind me as I closed the door so they could practice _without interruption_, this time. "Huh? Oh, okay! See you after—" Nishinoya was about to say something, but changed his mind to something else. I would have been fine with that, but it was about what he changed it to that surprised me.

"Kotori-san!"

* * *

***the morning sun - Azumane Asahi, in Japanese, translates to 'East Peak, Morning Sun'.**

***seppuku - Not for the weak of heart. It's a way the samurai punished themselves. Ritual suicide by cutting open your stomach and letting your insides pour out (disembowelment). **

***tsundere - Wikipedia: ****Tsundere is a Japanese character development process that describes a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time.**

***befitting his last name - "Hinata", his family name, translates to 'Sunny place'**

**i'm a horrible person. it's been a month. a _month._ i'm so sorry _I _should be the one committing seppuku one thousand times over oh god. i _did_ fall out of haikyuu for like, a week since i wasn't on tumblr for about that time but now i'm back.**

**but yeah, i have so many projects right now and what are friends and so much unnecessary drama thank god i only have one class with them and **

**ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.**

**kudos to whoever gets some of the name puns.**

**_Peri_ \- fanfiction is like tumblr. it will make you love the internet and never want to leave it but to never set foot in it at the same time. i hope you like it.**

**_Bergliot_ \- woooow. what a smart name. mine's really simple. anyway, i _love_ symbolism. so i really admire your kind of writing! also, you might be onto something with your philosophy... thanks for reviewing, again! sorry for the wait! **

**well, i hope you liked the update. it'll come out faster! it's like, a new years resolution!**

**happy holidays and new years! (albeit a bit late...)**

**#ssb**


	5. Work Now, Play Later

**Sky Ball**

**V. Work Now, Play Later**

* * *

**Special thanks to: stiluro, Tigeryee, bluheat, LuckyandStars, Kuroko Tetsuna, TsubakiHana, harudha558, terisu-seifa, Roseko-chan, PhoenixRage92, Oowwll, Forgetful Insanity, itachilover17, polandATEmyTACOS, XxShikeixX, mushu6666, Doll with No brain, Zecrea, gincitri, Tenegai, RakshaRashelMarie, cibrochero, Ahria24, randompersoneatingpie, SkyBridges, Smilingmona, shawk4, Little Cookies, April Showers Bring Me Flowers, Nightmare Melodies, Sealandismagical, FluffyCockatiel, sparkle4758, Cookyjam, Volpiko, gOthiCkUrOcHo69, Hecamagic, kuni-chan978, Gaara of the Desert564, almarosa09, xX. ShadowDragonSlayer .Xx, willymilly, n7shoujo, Chaotic Koi, XxXTwilight-SinXxX, CaraTheWitch, Lumihiutale89, Apikins, Aurora Lacroix, BreeTannerHuang, KurokamiHaruhi, Ganzyyy, Xx - - xX, iPrettyPrincess, Left-to-die, Promakhos, BarleyRice, BlueDragonofHappiness, BruisedBluenana, Veriannette, EWOC, Chii-chan, lazymusicfreak, MyseashellCat, YayXGirl, piscesdog, PrincipessaBel, B-rabbit28, SpawnOfSatan, CelticBlackRose, LilKatez94, pudine, Lavi01, i-is-monstarr-RAWR, Peaceful Watcher Soul, Karenheartfillia, TsugumiSora, Yuuki no Yuki, KuroAkumanin, Waltzing Shadow, starbabyz, PrincessInTheShadows, Ara le Yama Raja, pandas1155, Saskicheez, Vegolasify, LoStInIlLuSiOn, NLockhart, Bergliot, Hep, and Guest for favouriting/following/reviewing!**

* * *

To summarize my entire day, after looking at the poster hung up around the school, I had essentially sat in class and ran my fingers through the tips of my hair.

That was after seeing the posters for the school' Sports Festival.

Some people were excited, some people didn't care, and some people dreaded it. There was no in-between, and I was the last-mentioned. Not because I felt like my class was going to lose, but because I was _not good at sports._

Let me emphasize this as much as I can—_I sucked at sports._

It wasn't that I didn't _care_ for it, because I did. Actually, it was more like I cared about my grades, but gym managed to trounce me every year. I didn't understand why it was mandatory in a school environment—if our objective was to improve our IQ through getting sweaty and giving out odors, there were many other, more beneficial alternatives.

Like construction working! Then you could even have the additional community service hours. Either way, it seemed more productive than—and yes, I'd hate saying it, but—hitting a ball with the forearms in order for it to reach the end of the other side. Plus, it was painful.

So I was not happy. At all.

If I had the option, I would have disregarded the entire competition and not taken place in it.

But what dampened my mood even further after learning I _had_ to play in them was the following chatter during the day.

"I hope nobody in our class drags us down..."

"Yeah, right? I hate it when people do that. honestly, if you're going to suck, then don't play. Am I right?"

"I feel! Like, more than _being_ a drag, I feel they'll drag this class's honor right with them!"

So in other words, I had a feeling that if I wanted to maintain my invisible status with my classmates, failure was not an option.

I would be known as the 'can't-play-for-shit-Aozora' rather than the 'rich and prestigious Aozora', which, even if the latter was a lie, I preferred above the former.

And so I did what any other logical human would do. I thought it out.

Plan 1 - Stay home.

Reasons why I couldn't - Who was I kidding. Even if I tried, my mom would have made my time at home even more horrible than if I was at school after finding out I _wasn't actually_ sick.

Plan 2 - Find a tutor or something.

Reasons why I couldn't - More like reasons why I _shouldn't. _It wasted too much time and effort for something that wouldn't contribute to my future.

Plan 3 - Ask a classmate.

Reasons why I couldn't - General hassle to them. Plus, no one really knew me.

While I was about to settle for those three results, I was hit with a sudden revelation.

Nishinoya would probably help...

Though the reason of my denial was more emotional than anything, I simply decided to put the idea to the side and went home.

The usual routine followed, though after being kicked off of the computer and finishing my homework, thoughts of the Sports Festival surfaced again.

Ah, there were so many things that could have gone wrong... for instance, what if he felt like I was taking advantage of him? Or what if he saw just how bad I really was and decided I really was beyond help?

Regardless, thinking it too boring to spend my time alone at my house, just watching the zinnias in one vase wither and the slow blossoming of a lilac in another, I realized I had to do _something._

So as a result of boredom, I decided to call Nishinoya, but vowed _not_ to ask him if he could teach me volleyball. I told myself to buy a guillotine if that vow was broken.

"Who is this?!" Was the first response I got after he picked up.

"U-Um... Aozora Kotori..." I hesitated. Was this really him? Didn't he have caller ID? And was he really willing to pick up a random strangers' call?! On the other hand, the voice was filled with just as much energy as Nishinoya would have.

"Kotori-san! Sorry, sorry, it's your first time calling me, so you didn't show up on my Caller ID!" I could almost see Nishinoya's bubbly smile on the other side of the line. "Anyway, what's up? You never call me!"

"Oh! Well, um, I was just kinda... you know! Bored." Even though it was nothing but the truth, why did it sound like I was hiding some hidden, true intention? "And I'm not lying, I really am just bored."

Ack! That sounded even more like a lie than before! But if I tried to deny it again, it would sound even _more_ like a lie! Why did speech work like that?! Not to mention, I made it sound super rude. Like, 'oh, I wouldn't have called you if I had something better to do.'

I heard a small voice on the other end that wasn't Nishinoya's—like an accompaniment to Nishinoya's lead. Their words were muffled, but the lead shouted, "Ko-ah, uh, that girl in the stands during practice!"

He was talking to another person on the volleyball team. But... did that mean I called him at the wrong time?

"Who's there?" I asked.

"Oh, everyone. On the volleyball team, I mean! We just finished practice! I just took a step outside since I got a call." Nishinoya said.

"O-Oh! Well, um. okay! I'm sorry I couldn't be there today. But, um, I guess this is a bad time, huh... I'll call you back later... I... guess. Probably. Tell everyone good luck at the tournament for me, okay? O-Oh, and at the Sports Festival!"

"The Interhigh isn't 'till later in the year!" He said, easily detecting my lack of knowledge in the sport. "Plus, we can't participate in the school Sports Festival for volleyball."

"Eh?! Why not?" I asked.

"The _dean_ made the rule up." Nishinoya spoke his name as though it were the name of a tyrant. Not exactly _angry_ angry, but in a kind-of-annoyed manner. Like when a kindergartener bullied someone on the playground. "He was like, 'the sports teams are already at a higher level' or something stupid like that."

"That _does_ seem like a bad rule. You guys _do_ practice the most, after all." I sympathized with Nishinoya, even though I secretly sided with the dean. I had the opportunity to feel Azumane's spike hit my face, and I could guarantee a majority of the school's population would not have appreciated them.

"Yeah! But it's fine, since it gives us an extra excuse to make sure he doesn't cancel Training Camp!" The other line cheered.

"Training Camp?" I parroted.

"Yup! The 'Battle of the Trash Heap'—isn't that such a cool name?! Anyway, we're versing our rivals, Nekoma!"

"That sounds great!" Nishinoya had explained with such vigor that I would have felt like kicking a puppy if I didn't go along with it, even though I had no idea what the 'Trash Heap' entailed.

Since I couldn't ask what that was and had to pretend to understand and be happy for him, I had to assume a few things.

My main assumption was for the'Battle of the Trash Heap'. Had it been anyone else, I would have been utterly bamboozled at the mention of the title, but because of Nishinoya's fervor I could tell that it was a volleyball game and that Nekoma was likely the school they were versing and not a place.

"It really is!" He cheered. "Another thing that's great is we don't have to attend school, either! Not even Kiyoko-san! And it doesn't count as being absent, since it's a trip for school purposes!"

I could tell he just wanted a way to loop himself out of homework (after all, I _had_ been in a class with him in the previous year and had seen his grades), but I didn't point it out.

For a second, I wasn't sure what to say until I registered the second part of the conversation. "Oh, Shimizu-senpai is going too?"

"Obviously! She's our manager!" Nishinoya said happily.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Manager? What do managers do?"

Nishinoya paused for a long time. "Uh, I'm not sure! She fixes our banner and gets tapes of tams for us though! And she's amazing! And beautiful!"

So even if he thought she did nothing, it was pardoned because she was pretty?! That was the biggest biased opinion ever!

"And when're you going?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh, next Monday 'till Friday!" Nishinoya said happily. Should I even mention he said it 'happily' anymore? He practically said everything happily.

But being happy was obvious. It meant he didn't have homework for a week, and instead he could just do what he loved.

Then I became conscious of the fact that I had been frowning since Nishinoya claimed he'd be gone for a week.

True, it'd be lonely without him, though. Of course it wasn't as though he was my living emotional crutch, or anything, since I was used to being alone. The only reason I was frowning had to be discontent.

"Kotori-san? You still there?" He asked, but then a voice called out in the background. The same indiscernible words, but I could tell Tanaka was talking by the pitch. "Ahh... we're going now! I'll talk to you later then! Bye, Kotori-san!"

"See-" before I even had the chance to finish my farewells, the line went dead.

I put my phone away with an unsatisfactory sigh. Though I had called him, that entire conversation didn't go anywhere. It merely took away minutes on my phone. What a waste. I still had the pressure of not hanging up when I said I would and the Sports Festival hanging on me.

Then I had an epiphany.

If I became part of the volleyball team, I could kill so many birds with one stone. Me and Nishinoya being able to hang out, I could stop hanging out in the stands during their practices, having the open opportunity to socialize with members, and I could skip out from the Sport Festival's volleyball match (arguably the most painful sport) since I was a member of the volleyball team. Even if there was no official position.

It was the perfect solution. But how? Even though I had a tendency to overthink things, I doubted they would just go, '_Sure! You can become manager number two and come with us on the trip if you want to, Aozora!' _After all, they couldn't trust me, a mere _stalker _to randomly join the team, especially if said person was conspired to be her 'friend's' girlfriend. Even if I already dissolved that rumor Tsukishima was trying to imply.

True, there was no law against having a girlfriend be the manager (at least, I didn't _think_ so...) but wouldn't a girlfriend of one of the members be very distracting and annoying? Girlfriends were supposed to be the type of person who always came to games and cheered her boyfriend on, not manage the team.

Not that I was his girlfriend, obviously.

That was out of the question.

Yes, they couldn't trust me, so that was a dud... even if Nishinoya _could_ help me convince everyone else, what about the coach?

Wait.

The coach was Takeda-sensei!

My eyes widened in realization. Takeda-sensei could probably trust me!

Being a sort-of teacher's pet paid off! Even if I couldn't socialize with other students, teachers loved it when you handed in good work and explained and stuff! And _they_ couldn't call you a brown-noser or cocky.

I felt a bit bad for it, but the key to my goal was manipulating Takeda-sensei!

* * *

To make a short story even shorter, that's what I did. In fact, there was so much bull in what I told Takeda-sensei that I felt it came straight from an anime or something.

After school during the following day, my mind internally debated whether I should have gone to follow my plan or just given up. That consisted of walking back and forth between the hallway. In the end, I went to Takeda-sensei's room, and found him already leaving the room.

"Takeda-sensei!" I called out for him before he could head over to the gym. He turned in my direction, genuinely surprised I was talking to him, especially since he didn't ask me for my opinion on so-and-so's book or call on me for a question.

"Aozora-san. Is something the matter?" He asked kindly.

"Um... no, not really... but it's _something, _you see." I knew Takeda-sensei was the more sensitive and benevolent type of person, and would listen even if I spoke quietly or stuttered, especially in a situation like such. "You're the faculty adviser for the volleyball club, right?"

"Yes, I am. What about it?" He asked.

I looked up with determined eyes and made sure not to mess up the approximate script I had constructed (since the last times I went on instinct, I essentially insulted Nishinoya and acted like a smart aleck to Azumane) and clearly said, "I want to be of use to the volleyball team."

As everything fell into plan, I cued his surprised look.

The artificial light that illuminated the school hallways mixed with the sunlight emitted from the windows, which gave the whole scene a kind of surreal feeling.

I was very nervous, by the way. Even though I may have given off a practiced, manipulative, chessmaster sort of feel, I was very worried. If my offer was rejected, then it would mean bad rep with Takeda-sensei.

Still, I wouldn't have done this if I wasn't sure I had a good chance of things going my way (and not just a 50/50 chance. It had to be a 75 or so for me to go for it).

My argument wouldn't have much merit if that was it, though, I knew.

"It's not because of Nishinoya-kun! It really isn't. I mean, we're friends and all, but I don't think I'd do this just for him... I've actually always been into many sports, but since I wasn't very athletic, I never had the proper opportunity to try out for one, you see. So eventually, I gave up on pipe dreams and decided to focus on a bunch of other things. But recently, after coming to your practices and games and seeing everyone try their best, every day, even if it's just practice... It really inspired me."

There were so many _lies._ Lies, lies, and more lies. If I was Pinocchio, my nose would have gone straight through Takeda-sensei's glasses and poked him straight in the eye.

"And so I thought, 'no matter what, I want to help this team win!' So even if I can't help by providing physical support, maybe there could be some way... You know, I'm not looking for any set position, but sitting up in the stands all the time just seem so... useless. So I want to help! In any way I can!"

Well, it might not have been a _complete_ lie, but the truth had been twisted back and forth.

Takeda-sensei stared at me for a few more seconds before replying. "I'm glad to hear you say that."

It felt embarrassing to be recognized for such saccharine words, but I sucked it up. I simply stared at him, waiting for a further elaboration.

"Actually, I don't know all that much about volleyball, either. But I still help out in my own way, and I think you can too." Takeda-sensei said proudly, eyes nearly gleaming through his glasses.

Damn, he didn't even plan it out, and he was still able to flawlessly spout heartwarming words. That was the modern Japanese literature teacher for you.

In any case, things were all going similar to the plan...

"I'll just have to ask Uka—Coach Ukai if you could help out."

...Wait, what?

Shoot!

I had completely overlooked such an important feature! How careless! I doubted that unless Ukai deeply related to my speech, he'd say the more logical things like how they already had a manager and how they probably didn't have a spot on the team.

And he didn't seem like the sensitive type, either. I mean, when I had gotten hit, he simply shrugged it off!

...On second thought, that might have been because he'd seen it happen on multiple occasions, but... still! I knew Takeda-sensei well, but I didn't know Ukai at all, so reciting my sketch wouldn't have the same effect...

Especially since he didn't know anything about me—I could have been very irresponsible, careless, trying to cheat myself out of something.

Even if I wasn't going to formally introduce myself to him, he still couldn't trust me.

Still, pressing on any more would arise suspicion, so I simply gave nod (and _tried_ to smile) and nodded. "Yeah! Thanks so much, Takeda-sensei!"

After that, I ended up in the gym. The smell of deodorant, sweat and turpentine and the sounds of shoes and volleyball alike scraping again the floor had become all too familiar to me as of late.

But technically, I wasn't inside of the gym. I was directly outside, feet still planted firmly on the concrete steps while Takeda-sensei spoke to Ukai.

After an estimate of when I thought the two would be done talking, I walked inside. Immediately, I heard the words, "Oh, see? There she is. Where'd you go off to, Aozora-san?"

"I-I'm sorry, I was getting a drink…"

I took note of my stutter, which was likely a dead giveaway for the lie. Our teacher likely wouldn't think much of it, since he would have just assumed I was shy.

Which I wouldn't deny I was.

Ukai gave me an almost predatory stare as I walked up to them (or maybe it was just me being paranoid?)

"So, you're Aozora, huh?" He said. I couldn't read his tone of voice. It wasn't casual, but it wasn't rude or formal either.

"Yes." I replied automatically, analyzing everything about the situation—the Coach's body language, down to the twitches of his fingers that were visible between his folded arms, to the small quirks of his eyebrows, Takeda-sensei watching eagerly from the side... Even the minor things that didn't matter, like the explosions of roars and cheers (or roars that _were_ cheers) that came from the court every time certain people managed to reach or exceed expectations, and Coach Ukai's hairstyle that rivaled Johnny Bravo's or Mando Oowada's from Dangan Ronpa. It even exceeded the ridiculousness of Nishinoya's! (But seriously, how did guys ask for their haircut at the barbers'?)

"So you want to be part of the team." He claimed.

Hm… should I have denied I wanted to be part of the team and settled for whatever was given to me or should I have agreed? If I went with the first, then it would have seemed wishy-washy and it might not have gotten me to my objective. So I replied, "Yes, I… I want to help the team in any way I can?"

"And how're you going to do that?"

"Any way I can, as I stated before."

I had a feeling the coach wasn't too fond of me already, with such a vague answer. I screwed it up somehow, didn't I?!

"Can you play?" He asked the dreaded question that could have potentially biased his judgement on me.

"Ah… no…" I frowned and looked down. "But… I'll do anything else I can."

"But I don't know how much you _can_ do…" Ukai gave a hesitant glance to the side in thought.

This meant I had to think of the ideas. "Well, I'll… I'd buy drinks and stuff, with my own money." Though I thought he'd say that claim was arrogant and immediately decline my offer, he seemed to be focusing more on how guilty he would feel for using a high schooler's money on drinks for a team. "O-Or I could, um, help with situational analysis or something!" That made the coach sound incompetent! "Uh… or I could memorize every single play! Or help out when Shimizu-senpai is unavailable!" Now I just sounded desperate.

"Wait," He interrupted, "'Memorize every single play?' Including the other teams? That seems a bit impossible, doesn't it?"

"Well, I could _probably_ do it." Great. Now he'd think I was cocky. I was doomed.

"Still, doesn't that seem a bit much? Besides, I don't really have any use for it…"

"I'll do anything then, just say it." I claimed.

Ukai thought for a second. His judgement may have been a bit biased, however—I doubted he wanted another girl on the team. Not because of sexism, but it was a _boys_ volleyball team. I simply waited for his response, since I couldn't interrupt it anymore. I prepared for the heartbreaking decline—

"How about you collect information?" Ukai suggested. I tilted my head.

"What do you mean?" Takeda-sensei voiced for me.

"It's true that if we knew more about our opponents, like their strengths and weaknesses, it'd be easier to make up a plan. You're at least educated in volleyball, so you can make notes, right?" Ukai asked.

Uh… how about no.

"Yeah, of course." I said, completely contradicting my thoughts. The reason being that being Aozora-the-information-broker seemed like the only way I'd be allowed on.

Ukai looked at me questionably, his face reading are-you-sure-this-girl-is-up-for-anything, but he didn't say a word. "Well, we have a training camp coming up…"

"Oh, is that so?" I asked nonchalantly, since I didn't know if he was testing me to see if I just wanted to join to get out of school.

"Yeah. You can get info on the school we're versing during the last day—Nekoma. Hm… get information on Datekou. That'll test how effective you are. If you're good, you can help. If not, then I don't know what you can do. If things work, though, you'll be coming with us during Training Camp. I don't expect you to go all the way there just for some information."

I probably would have. My neck was on the line.

"But I don't know if you can do it. I mean, it's not as easy as people think." Ukai said, mostly to himself, but geared towards me.

"I could try…" Even though it was genuine that I _wasn't_ sure of myself, _didn't_ want my abilities over-estimated, _and_ I didn't want to seem arrogant by making a bold claim and not living up to it, I still internally scolded myself for sounding like the wishy-washy, undetermined type of person.

"Well, okay. Collect information on a team and hand it in at least three days before Training Camp." Ukai said seriously.

"Okay." I agreed as calmly as possible.

After their rigorous training, Nishinoya waved me down from the stands to walk home. He was trying to wipe off his sweat with the collar of his shirt and a towel draped over the back of his neck. I would have never said this out loud, but regardless of the activity, seeing people drenched in their own sweat was kind of gross. I was in gratitude for his efforts to clear his sweat.

I grabbed my bag and headed down the stairs from the stands to see him, and he greeted me with his bubbly smile.

"Hey, Aozora! Didja see that one receive from Asahi-san I hit?" He asked enthusiastically, before interrupting my chance to reply to correct himself with, "I mean—Kotori-san!"

"Yeah, I did. It was nice." I said, but it seemed too curt of a reply for me so I continued with, "If I even tried to receive that hit, my arm probably would have come clean off…"

"That isn't true! You took one to the face and you were fine before, remember?" He grinned in jest.

True. _'But it bounced off the floor first'_ was my only fact for defense, and it wasn't reinforced, so I didn't use it. Instead I said the smart answer of, "Yeah."

After he changed from his jersey, shorts and shoes to his heavenly-praised _black_ blazer (much wow, very 'cool'), we left to go home.

Despite being late spring, it was already the boys practiced for quite a long time. The sun was just starting to set. The sky was dyed slightly pink, which gave the few clouds an orange hue. The road home seemed darker because of the time of day.

As always, I felt guilty on our way back as he always initiated the conversations and I would only give small replies, until he finally ran out of things to say and silence fell.

But then I remembered my task. "Hey, Nishinoya-kun." I spoke up.

"Huh? What?"

"If you had to categorize the traits that make a good or bad volleyball player, what would you organize it by?" I asked.

"Huh? What?" His reply was a repeat of the first, but this time he wasn't confused about what I had to say, but was instead confused about what I _was_ saying.

"Okay. Um…" I thought about how to put it for a few seconds, before deciding to be less cryptic. "Let's say you had to give information about someone. About sports. How would you do it?"

"I don't know." Came his blunt reply.

"Shouldn't you?! Like, as a player?" I complained.

"Uh. No? I kinda just play. Oh, but before a match, the coach tells us some things like, 'He's an amazing setter' or 'Even though he's a Wing Spiker, he has great receives!'" He said, trying to help.

I assumed that was what they were looking for. But just details like that wouldn't work. They could assess those themselves.

Then the annoying perfectionist side of me came up, and began thinking of it as though it were a school assignment, for better or for worse.

What could make it surpass expectations? Go above and beyond? Be considered 'unexpected' for me? Or, at the very least, reach the quota—

"Alright! See you tomorrow, Kotori-san!" Nishinoya waved, heading on the other side of the crossroad.

"Huh? Oh! Uh, sorry! Yeah, bye!" I called out after him, and he completely turned and left.

First—what was the success criteria?

Like most brawny dads that lived in the twentieth century, my dad was a huge fan of football and baseball, with generic information on all sports.

I considered myself lucky, since he was not only skilled at sports, but he was ridiculously smart, too.

As I arrived home, the typical routine followed with me and my mom.

"How was your day at school?"

"Good."

"Were you at volleyball again?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have any homework?"

A studious policy my mom had came up with. Homework was always the first priority, no matter what.

"Yeah. Do you know where dad is? I need his help." I asked, having already checked the area he usually worked in with no sign of him.

"He's out, but he'll be back soon." My mother replied casually. "Why?"

"Oh, um, it's just this thing for Phys. Ed. Nothing special, but I figured he'd be more knowledgable." I claimed. It was the truth.

After that, I headed upstairs and into my room for isolation for the few minutes (or hours if the situation called for it) I waited for my dad to come home.

When he did, he knocked on my door and came in without waiting for my reply. "Hey, Ko. You needed me for something?"

"Glad to see you home," I greeted first. "Uh, you know how you were in football and stuff? How would you categorize, like, facts and statistics on a sheet? Like… how could you… ugh, gah, how do I put this… How would you organize them?"

Luckily, he interpreted the question correctly. Still, he replied, "I don't know, it depends on the sport."

"Uh, volleyball."

"Ugh. I hated volleyball in high school. I'd always play libero. Since I was a football player, I was the only one who could take a hit!" He laughed triumphantly. "But yeah. I'd do it as… Power, Jumping, Stamina, Game Sense, Technique, and Speed."

I wrote those six categories on the Sticky Notes app on my computer screen. Now what…?

Asking him for any more help would make him question whether he was doing the assignment for me or not, so I dismissed him there with, "Thanks, dad!"

"No problem. If you ever need help, let out a holler for me." He said, before closing the door and leaving me alone yet again.

"I will!" I said happily, and as the door closed, went back to my serious demeanor.

Even if I filled up that chart I was planning to make, that was just the _expectation_. With such a useless position, one only being open because I asked a teacher that liked me, I definitely wouldn't be able to make it if it didn't surpass expectations.

But how…

I moved from my sliding computer chair to my bed and lay down, face up, arm on forehead and one leg dangling off the side and stared at the laminated wooden fan go around and around.

"Above and beyond…" I muttered, my words not holding enough volume to be overridden by the barely audible squeak of the ceiling fan.

My fingers traced the bed sheet until they wrapped around something cold—metal.

I pulled it up in front of my face and dialled the first and only contact that went to Karasuno.

* * *

"So… Kotori-san, are you gonna explain why we're watching Aoba Jousai High's exhibition game against Hachigiri High?" Nishinoya asked with me in the stands. "Not that I have a problem with it, but…"

"Sorry for not explaining more over the phone. We're just observing, and if you want to, like, uh, go along with it, I kinda want to ask you some questions on what you think about the match." I claimed.

"Okay…" He still sounded very, very confused, but I wasn't sure how to explain it, and so I avoided having to elaborate further.

As expected, during the game, I saw it the same way I always did: A simple game I thought to be impossible for me to play.

But he described it so vibrantly, as though there was something I couldn't see. Something more than the sound of ball against skin or wood. More than the strong smell of sweaty armpits that even reached the audience. More than the touch of my fingers curled around the end of the bench, and far more than what my eye perceived.

After deciphering Nishinoya's ridiculous vollanguage with visual clues and onomatopoeias that would bring the Western Marvel and DC Comic books to shame, he had described general information I wasn't able to tell.

"Yeah! The guy on white with the really big serve seems super good! It's kinda like... like... 'GWAAA, SHOOM!' Ooh, and that other one, right there, has a nice receive." Nishinoya described.

I started asking more specific questions, such as, "If you had to rate number 7's stamina on a scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate him?"

However, those were useless, as he basically thought that 1 was bad, 5 was okay, and 10 was amazing. But those three numbers were all he said. They hardly ever made a 1, to make matters worse.

But still, even if I could use my new knowledge to create data, I still needed to find a way to get extra data. Something to exceed expectations.

I asked Nishinoya what he thought about how he speculated they used to play like, and he explained a somewhat understandable description of how each member was like in the past—some people Nishinoya had versed before and he remembered how they were like, and others he just guessed. Then I asked him how he guessed and how the Karasuno players played last year, and duly noted his critique, since everything else was useless.

After soaking in the information, I decided to call my interrogation quits and just let Nishinoya enjoy the volleyball match.

"Hey, Kotori-san, what got you so interested in volleyball all of a sudden?" Nishinoya asked, looking at me after observing the game for a decent amount of time.

In my realization for the answer, my mouth curved to an awkward position in between a smile and frown.

The answer I should have told him, if I was telling the truth, was '_you_.'

But even though it was friendship—_definitely_ just a friendship (I mean, he liked Shimizu after all), I couldn't bring myself to say the truth. After all, it sounded like something ripped off from a romance novel.

But maybe I was being a bad friend, even if I didn't want to be. Like, 'ew, she's one of those bitches who thinks she's so good and loyal but she's actually not'. That type of person the girls and guys spoke about. I mean, I did get mad at Nishinoya because he got mad _once_. That wasn't good-natured, sweet, nice, friendly, or innocent at all, right?

I didn't want to admit it was for him, even if it _was_ in a purely platonic sense. So I lied again. "I was just trying to improve my gym skills." Luckily, he didn't connect the dots that finding out about players had nothing to do with skill.

"You could've asked me." He muttered under his breath so low that I couldn't hear him.

* * *

I went home that day, and thought long and hard. I had the ability to go above and beyond—something I could offer that people couldn't normally. But then, what?

To not come up with an idea so close to the deadline was horrible. Even if I did get Datekougyou's information, it wasn't enough. Not yet.

Then I remembered my question to Nishinoya. _'How do you think they used to be like?'_

But what lead to that question? I remembered having an epiphany, and whatever lead to that idea would lead to my answer.

How they used to be like. Why would I care about that…

_I wonder what they used to be like. Were they as bad as I am?_

That was it.

Immediately, I remembered my idea. I wanted to go above and beyond by predicting their improvement areas and rates.

But there were a lot more factors than what Nishinoya gave me. So far, it seemed the personalities and school grades seemed to determine what the player chose to improve, with the constant of what they were already good at.

I also couldn't forget Datekougyou was my objective. I searched 'Datekougou High School', 'Datekyougou High School volleyball members' 'Datekougou High School volleyball' on videos, and then searched up each individual member, all on different tabs.

I turned off the lights, lowered my laptop screen brightness to the darkest it could go and hooked it up to charge while I went downstairs to go make myself a coffee (or at least some water and gum) to last myself the night.

* * *

I tried not looking tired in front of Coach Ukai and Takeda-sensei the next day, but I couldn't tell if they detected it or not. They both focused on the large, fourteen-page pile of notes I held out to them, all stapled together in order of cover, overall team, starting members (players of interest first), and then second string.

At first, Coach Ukai had quite an exasperated look on his face, as his thumb flipped through the _many_ pages for what everyone seemed to think was simple information, but then he actually began to read through it. The pressure created a lump in the back of my throat.

He didn't finish it properly. In fact, it appeared as though he only had taken a small scan through the entire thing and had only focused on the "Overall Team" page and one of the members of interest before he looked back up at me.

And gave a small grin and puff of air through his nose and mouth that told me I was good enough.

* * *

**as you can tell, i didn't slack off on listing the favourite/follower/reviewers at all. and that took quite a while, by the way. if your name isn't on there, it's because fanfiction edited it out. almost happened with Mr. Dragon Slayer, so i had to space his name out. but oh my _god_ i didn't expect to get that many. i'm still going to mention new people though, obviously, since i really appreciate your support and just thanks.**

**i'm sorry this update is so late, my teacher is _cruel._ long, hard, pointless assignments are her specialty. at least they look nice.**

**i actually had a chapter before this, but at the very end i realized literally nothing happened in it and so i rewrote everything. in which i lost motivation for like, a month because _work man_. and yes, i know i'm complaining about nothing and 'college is harder' or 'the work force is harder' but pain is not a competition and let me make my freaking excuses dude.**

**ahem**

**i will edit this chapter later on (not too majorly though), just so everyone knows, since i finished this and i've slept about 6 hrs in the past three days. i just wanna get this up asap.**

**Bergliot: i'm so sorry i'm hardly ever even on fanfiction. haha, not really "wisdom" as it's basically just her forgetting to be what she thinks is 'polite'. but i'm glad you liked the scene! i like to try and add some comic relief once in a while, but i try not to completely break the serious tension. i just do what would feel realistic? you know, like how some people use jokes to make them feel a bit more comfortable.**

**as for the nishinoya thing, i just figured since if he's going to get mad in that serious way, he'd be more of the fun, charismatic type. hinata probably fits the happy-go-lucky archetype more, in my opinion, but still has his cool moments. anyway, i'm really glad you like this story and i hope i don't disappoint!**

**Zecrea:** **i'm trying to copy the realistic flow of the anime, haha. ALSO, i should explain this:**

**aozora and nishinoya _haven't_ spent a year together. the japanese school year starts in spring, and aozora and nishinoya met in late winter/early spring in their first year. i should have explained this further, but the only hint i gave was during chapter two (i think?) where aozora asks "should we really be getting that (popsicles) in _February_?".**

**Ahria24: ****Say anything, i'm fine with anything! i like long ones, but i'm definitely not complaining about any short ones! the summary... well, i guess that was a misunderstanding, too! *badum-tss***

**i'm so glad you think this oh my god do you know how i stare at this and think 'does that fit'? it's especially hard to do serious, impacting scenes because it's the place where you mess up easiest and _everyone notices_ so i'm really glad.**

**also, about the aozora/nishinoya reactions, there will be some more shoujo elements, but that's kind of... natural. i mean, to be real, everybody fantasizes about romance in some way, or exaggerates it a bit. due to aozora's realistic nature, she'll see it as something more realistic, but even she'll have her moments.**

**i also tried describing the scenery more, which was probably a good idea (but that's for you to decide) but i don't want to go too far since the story is told from aozora's perspective and people don't normally describe scenery when describing an event. so i do want to continue doing as you suggested, but i thought i should let you know i probably won't be too extravagant with it. thanks for reviewing!**

**SkyBridges: is this the update you were hoping for**

**Hep: you're one of my all-time favourite anonymous reviewers**

**n7shoujo: i'm so sorry you're so right. i mean, some scenes were probably kind of necessary to just go over a bit, but some were completely pointless. i'll try to rewrite them sometime. i'll try to keep your advice in mind and thank u so much friendo.**

**yes i'm trying to also keep this realistic, as i've said to others, so yes it will contain some cliche things but to be honest if you've never thought of cute things while you liked somebody you're lying, and thank you so much for all the compliments and feedback and i hope you continue to like this story.**

**Left-to-die: Thanks for reviewing. Also, I caught that reference. **

**Guest: hope this is good enough**

**Yuuki no Yuki: ****there's actually a main reason she doesn't right now, other than her being shy. i'll reveal it later. has to do with his name, though. thanks for reviewing, i hope you keep liking it! ^-^**

**PrincessInTheShadows: no guarantee about fast update haha but if i stick to my schedule it should be okay as long as i don't get into another anime. thanks for reviewing though!**

**Ara le Yama**** Raja ****: well, i updated soon (in regards to your review), but thanks so much! aozora would be embarrassed but glad about the compliment, probably! thanks for reviewing!**

**at this part in the story, aozora's personality will start to _slightly_ deviate since she's actually very smart, so she _might_ be a bit less relatable. i still think she's plenty, though. just a little heads-up.**

**#ssb**


	6. Not Home

**Sky Ball**

**VI. Not Home**

* * *

**Special thanks to: XGj123, graceful . nyxx, Ranguren, Zecrea, PythagTheDragon, JustImagineXx, Riomi-senpai, Helen Teng, Emmabyx, General . KOKO, Plexi Pink, LadyDream3512, Xxdreamergirl95xX, Kiku-Pyon, Kanzaki Mizuki, the-bennett-descent, StephanR, TheLazyHacker, deborah-sucks, Nightmist96, GlowingRabbit, CelestialArcane, LiveLove2Laugh, sohuii, ohanaaa, mikklystar, StarrySky0103, Untrustedwithscissors, Yukimi Himenou, Sachiko Keidi Honoki, Xealah, AnimeFan732, hanonmm, Iridescent Satire, loopyloo2610, mcgonagiggles, FuyuShirotsuki, hokshi, Demon-General91, shanagi95, Human Marshmallow, Yaoifan-gurl-forever, Ynnah, I see you see, Randomness is Awesome, Yuuki no Yuki, Ara le Yama Raja, Zecrea, Guest(1), Browniegami, Guest(2) and Diclonious57 for reviewing/following/favouriting this story!**

* * *

The trip to their training camp was long and boring, and I, personally, wasn't used to waking up so early.

When I had arrived at the rendezvous for attendance before we left to go to their training camp, I was _just barely_ on time.

And why was everyone else wide awake?! They were chatting way like they had been up for hours.

"Hey, Kotori-san, what're you doing here so early?" Nishinoya asked. As everyone's eyes and heads turned towards me momentarily, I felt centered-out.

"Um, well… it's kind of hard to explain, but…" I started to say, and then went quiet. They looked at me almost expectantly, which added to the pressure.

… Wasn't there a saying? Right. 'Face your fears.' Even if I hated talking to people without a script, I knew I'd have to one day. Plus, if I wimped out in front of the entire volleyball team, wouldn't they have thought I was a bad friend to Nishinoya?

Well… probably not, since they didn't seem like bad people.

So even if I was going to stutter, forget what to say or say it incorrectly, I decided to speak.

"Ah, right. I should take this time to introduce myself. I'm, um, Aozora Kotori, your new… second manager? Co-manager? Not-really-even-a-manager? Second-in-charge manager?" While I was nervous, I ended up saying what I was supposed to be thinking, and speaking rather quickly. I caught on to my mistake. "Ah, I mean—"

Luckily, I was saved from having to continue by Nishinoya. "Hold on, what?!"

Oh my god. Was he mad? Of course he was. Maybe volleyball was the private part of his life that he didn't want me to intrude on. Oh god, that was such a bad idea… joining the team and everything…

No, that didn't seem like him at all.

"Yeah…" I muttered, looking down at the cement.

"That's kind of awesome!" Nishinoya exclaimed. "That means you're coming with us, right?! …Wait, how'd you join? And why?"

"Eh?! You're like our new manager, Asuna-senpai?" Hinata interrupted.

"Stupid. Her name is Azura." Kageyama said incorrectly as well, sending a hypocritical glare (though he wasn't aware of it) towards Hinata.

"Ah?! What?! Her name is 'Asura'*?!" Hinata said before turning to face me, almost looking to see I didn't have six arms and the sun behind me.

"I didn't say Asura, I said _Az_ura."

"Her name's _Aozora_," Tsukishima corrected properly. "But it'd take some brain cells to know, so I don't blame you." He added snidely.

"Oh—hey, what's that supposed to mean?!" Hinata flipped his gaze over to the blond, bespectacled boy with a glare. Kageyama had also caught Tsukishima's insult.

"A-Ah, yeah! Tsukishima-kun is right. It's Aozora, but… y'know, I think Asuna and Azura are nice names, too!" I chimed in.

Sugawara and Sawamura's conversation had been interrupted by my introduction, and they had a smile upon learning I would be the co-manager, but when I tried mediating between the two parties, Sugawara and Sawamura looked at each other with the same knowing smile.

"Well, Aozora-san, it's great to have you here." Sugawara claimed. Most of them, if not everyone, nodded, though some a bit more curtly than others.

Just then, Ukai, Takeda and Shimizu came in. Was I supposed to have been with them?

"Alright. I'm gonna take attendance, and then the bus should be here after that. Azumane!"

He went down the list, even checking me off at the end. As he had predicted, the bus arrived soon after.

I sat next to Shimizu the entire trip. Nishinoya was in the back with Tanaka, talking about their previous achievements with the team last year.

At first I wished he would talk to me, but then found that thought a bit selfish and stupid. _I_ was the one who barged in his extracurricular. Why did he have to make room just for me? He didn't even know it was for him. Plus, what did I expect? Him to yell across the bus and center me out? Then I would have been annoyed. So in the end, I felt better being alone.

"Aozora-san." It was a calm, dainty voice that sounded as smooth as clear water that broke my attention away from the boy at the back.

"Yes?" I tried to imitate her serene voice, but it came out a bit too rushed.

She paused for a second, or maybe she just didn't register my voice, and then said, "Welcome to Karasuno's volleyball team."

Her eyes didn't look at me, but instead towards the aisle—the opposite direction. She was undoubtedly referring to me, so I replied, "Thank you very much."

I glanced back to Nishinoya, to find he was looking towards me, and I quickly turned back towards the front before realizing he wasn't looking at me, but probably towards Shimizu.

I sat in silence the rest of the trip.

* * *

As soon as we got there, Ukai started training while Takeda went to go check the team into the hotel. As my new duty asked of me, I watched the entire time, taking notes.

Shimizu kept looking at me while I worked, but wore a poker face. If it had anything to do with me, it was probably either 'Why is she here?', 'Should I disturb her while she's working?', or 'What is she working on?'

Whatever she was thinking, she kept it to herself as she didn't approach me.

_Trying_ not to pay mind to her, I continued my work.

Shimizu didn't speak to me until the end of practice, where she tried to casually sit down next to me.

I didn't like to be someone to judge. I really, really didn't. But when an extremely popular girl sat down next to you, who practically exuded a cool aura from her _existence_, it was incredibly hard not to be pressured. She was the type of person who was difficult to confront, and she chose to sit _right next to me_.

Nishinoya and Tanaka waved at her before heading out on their run. I could almost see them as Labrador Retrievers, wagging their dainty tails as they turned tail.

"Hey, what's that—" Shimizu said in a manner closer to trying to initiate a conversation rather than question something, but none the less was cut off by our bespectacled teacher.

"Hinata-kun! Your water bottle!" Takeda leaned out of the door, one hand on the doorframe and the other holding Hinata's water bottle. "Ah, jeez…"

Immediately, I got up. This was a great way I could prove myself good at something.

"Takeda-sensei! I'll take it!" I exclaimed, a bit too loud and shrill than I meant it to be. "They can't have gotten that far."

He handed the water bottle to me. "They're pretty fast, but good luck, Aozora-san."

After completing the hand-off, I broke out in a run. At least I knew their route—this wouldn't be a wild goose chase.

I figured I probably couldn't keep up with them by jogging, so I started sprinting in their direction.

Problem was, I had underestimated how fast they could jog.

Even though I figured I'd just sprinted the 200m race (or at least, it sure as hell _felt_ like I did), I still didn't see them. Which was ridiculous, since I hadn't left more than twenty seconds after them.

I thought about stopping. That feeling was starting to build up in the back of my throat—it tasted bad, and left a cold feeling. I was thankful I didn't have asthma, or I'd be wheezing. I really, really wanted to stop, but if I did, what would be the point of me running this far and not fulfilling my word of honor to Takeda-sensei? Shimizu was a witness. They could even be around the corner.

Those thoughts lead to the catalyst of sparking vigor in me. Even though I was tired, I continued to sprint. To make it easier, I started to take larger steps.

Eventually, I had reached a limit I hadn't even reached in gym class—I felt like puking. I literally felt vomit in the back of my throat, which interrupted my breathing, which was probably why I had cramps.

Just one more corner.

That corner was probably the only thing that kept me going at that point. I forgot everything else—forgot the bottle of water that was tempting _me_ to drink, forgot what I said to Takeda-sensei, forgot about everything except the horrible pains in my respiratory system and stomach...

And that corner.

When I turned it, I registered a group of joggers.

Though I had been going at a tolerable breathing pace (in, step, out, step…), instead of breathing out, I screamed as loudly as I could.

At that point, I was way past the point of being able to make comprehensible sound.

I tried screaming "Hinata-kun!", which was a short sentence I could probably get out in one breath, but it came out more of "UHHHHHHHHHHHHH!", like a manly scream.

How ladylike.

Either way, it got their attention. Even Kageyama and Hinata, who had been ploughing their way through the route and were likely responsible for the boys' ridiculously fast pace, stopped to stare at me, who was barely standing.

As expected.

I held up Hinata's water bottle and crouched down, placing my other hand on my mouth. Ugh. Within any second, I could have released the contents of my breakfast onto the rock trail.

"Hey! That's my water bottle!" Hinata exclaimed, running over to me, completely disregarding my body language.

"Oh, it's Aozora," Sawamura said casually. He seemed like the more considerate type, though, so perhaps he just assumed I was tired and not _dying_.

Hinata ran towards me to retrieve his water bottle, and then finally noticed.

"Hey, Aozora-senpai, are you okay…? You're not looking too good." Hinata said.

"Hokay…" I said, starting my words with a breath of air that imitated an h-sound. "Hine."

"Are you sure…?" Hinata leaned over to take a closer look at my face.

Just then, I realized how stupid my plan was. To prove my worth by delivering a water bottle and then to prove my weakness by throwing up in front of the entire team.

Wow. Such dignity.

Just then, I lurched forward a bit. Some of the saliva hit my protective hand. Gross. I shook my head 'no,' since I was scared that a response would follow with projectile vomiting all over Hinata.

"Hey, what's taking you so long?!" Kageyama stepped through from the front of the crowd to the back, just so he could see what Hinata was doing, and glare at him for good measure.

"Aozora-san's not feeling good!" Hinata told the entire team.

It seemed like Sawamura and Sugawara were acting on instinct as they walked over to me.

"What's wrong?" Sawamura asked first.

I just shook my head, hoping they could understand such a vague gesture.

"Ah, it's probably because she ran all the way here. Right?" Sugawara asked.

"Mmm." That could have meant 'mm-hm, yes, I ran way too much', or 'mm-mm, no, I'm just dying.' While I was mad at myself for the vague command, I was glad I could make an audible sound without screwing up.

I wiped the wad of saliva (or maybe held-in vomit? I hoped not) from earlier on the inside of my skirt—thankfully it wouldn't touch me, because of my spandex shorts, but it was still gross. I'd need to change when I got back. Then I could probably wash the skirt under water for safety.

"Someone needs to bring her to Takeda-sensei," Hinata easily deduced.

"He's right. It's fine, go on wi—" Sugawara started to say, but was interrupted.

"I'll do it." Nishinoya claimed, interrupting. "Leave her to me!"

No one accused him of wanting to get out of jogging, but some people seemed like they'd easily choose Sugawara or Sawamura over him in terms of taking care of someone.

I'd still take what I'd get. Actually, it was probably fine if Sugawara took me rather than Nishinoya, since I looked absolutely dreadful and had a decent chance of puking on someone.

"You sure?" Sugawara asked, skeptical about Nishinoya's care-taking abilities.

Nishinoya nodded proudly. With his assurance, the rest of the team continued their jog.

"Hey, Kotori-san, are you okay?" He bent over beside me.

I tried getting up from my crouched position, but found my stomach churn as I did so. I shook my head 'no', but found that gave me a headache.

Nishinoya thought for a second. "Can you get up?"

"Mm-mm." I muttered, telling him I pretty much couldn't.

"Do you want to stay here, or go back?" Nishinoya asked.

I felt that puking in broad daylight would be one of the worst-case scenarios, so I said "Go back," though my words were slurred due to my panting and fatigue.

"Here. Try getting on my back." He offered. I shook my head.

"Shakes too much. Also… wait for me to catch my breath." I insisted.

As expected, after running even just that short distance, my legs felt like putty, showing just how out of shape I really was.

I got up, slowly but surely. My legs felt like they would give way any second. It took all the effort I had just to remain standing.

Still, I declined his offer. It would probably be better, and make me feel better, but I couldn't embarrass myself in front of him.

I started moving using the force of gravity acting on my upper body, forcing my legs to move.

That idea worked, but wasn't the most intelligent. Then I decided it was too much trouble, and would embarrass me and make me look even stupider.

Nishinoya just stared with eyebrows knitted in concern for a second, before walking in front of me, back turned.

"S'okay! I mean, you can't be _that_ heavy, right? Asahi-san's fell on me before, so unless you're heavier than that guy, it'll be no problem!" Nishinoya insisted.

I didn't want to get on his back because of the many misunderstandings, but I didn't want to walk on my own. So I made a compromise. "Just prop me up."

I slung my arm around the back of his sweaty neck (or, at this point, the sweat could have more than likely been from my arm) and shifted my weight onto him.

"You're a lot lighter than I thought you'd be." He claimed.

"Did you expect me to be overweight?" I joked.

"No! It's just… uh…" I almost laughed at how nervous he was.

"I was just kidding. Other than health defects, there's nothing wrong with being overweight." I said between breaths.

"You're not, though. You're seriously light. You better not be putting all the weight onto yourself, or else there's no point to this!"

I wasn't so spectacularly light that I weighed less than his empty backpack, but I definitely wasn't heavy, as expected of my stature.

We continued for a little bit.

My mind began to trail off to more irrelevant details, like my arm wrapped around his neck, the way his annoying hair would poke me like porcupines in my forearm, his hand holding mine in place so that I didn't slip off, and our sweat—both his for jogging, and mine from sprinting. Gross.

"Anyway, that wasn't that bad, Kotori-san! You sprinted, like, what, 400 meters?" He praised.

"Don't expect that from me ever again." I insisted.

"Don't even know how…" I stopped speaking. I still felt like I was going to hurl.

"H-Hey, are you okay?" He asked. Since I was on his side and all, I couldn't see his expression, but he sounded concerned. Whether it was for me or for fear of his precious non-mephitic clothes, sounding like I was regurgitating wasn't a re-assuring sound for him.

"Just put me down. I'd rather be tired and walking than puking all over you." I insisted. "Wouldn't want your precious hair to turn green, now would we?"

I was so incredibly tired that my sarcasm was slipping out of my polite demeanor. Yikes.

"It's okay, you're really not that heavy! As for the puking…" He paused for a moment before coming to the only logical conclusion, "well, if you really have to, just turn the other way."

I didn't speak for a moment. This gesture wasn't supposed to be how it went, right? This had to be a trick of some sort. He should have let go of me by now and ran fifty feet away, wanting to save his tall hair from my vomit.

But I couldn't sense any greedy ulterior motive.

After that, I almost puked on Nishinoya quite a few times. But each time, it only went halfway up, making me feel even worse. A feeling that I wanted to puke, but I didn't and couldn't.

Eventually, my stomach settled enough. "Okay, I'm good…"

"Well, are you sure? I mean, we're right there, anyway." Nishinoya asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I mean, imagine them trying to wrap their heads around _this_. They'll get the wrong idea for sure!" I pointed out.

"But if you're gonna hurl, isn't it better if I bring you in?" He asked. "That would justify it, right?"

"No." Even though he got the gist of it, the way he was thinking was still so… naïve. "Just… drop me here. I'll walk the rest."

"Well, I'm coming too. It's not like I can join up with the team now." Nishinoya claimed. "And it's a great opportunity to see Kiyoko-san!"

He dashed inside. When I walked/tiredly limped in, I was greeted by Shimizu being dogged by Nishinoya and a surprised Takeda-sensei.

"Aozora-san, you're not looking too well. Are you alright?" He asked, concerned, which reaffirmed my thought of Takeda-sensei being a paragon of a teacher.

"No," I said simply. "I'm feeling better, but sprinting that far was a bit too much."

"Y-You sprinted?" He asked, his glasses slipping down a millimeter in his confusion. He pushed them up.

Now, it wasn't as though I had done something amazing. In fact, a bunch of people ran 400 meters at track and field every year. Even a second-year middle schooler* could've ran it.

I wasn't fast, per se, and it wasn't as though my stamina was prodigal. He simply had seen me run before, and to put it bluntly, the expectations from then and now were very different.

"Yeah. I think she overdid it." Nishinoya said.

"Well, we're not allowed to give her any medicine, so the remedy is to just let it pass." Takeda claimed.

"I'm fine." I insisted, slightly concerned for the anchored Shimizu, and not wanting him to worry. "I'll just use the washroom. Give me a bit."

With that, I left the main dining area and to the inn's washroom, where I bent over the toilet for quite some time.

My contact lenses were beginning to annoy me, so I removed them and put them back in the case, placing it on the sink.

_See? I knew I'd be fine!_ I thought, after five minutes without any contents of my breakfast in the toilet. Straightening myself up, I walked back to the room, seeing a continually anchored Shimizu and Takeda and Ukai talking to each other.

"Hey, Nishinoya-kun." I called out, wanting mainly to create some salvation for Shimizu. He diverted his attention to me. "For interrupting your jog… wanna… uh, go practice…?"

* * *

Though wasn't at 100%, I was still able to throw Nishinoya volleyballs fine.

"Hey, Kotori-san, can you spike them over? These are too easy." Nishinoya complained.

"Um, no." I answered, kind of embarrassed.

He looked at me oddly for a second. At first, he probably thought it was because I was tired. Then he thought I just didn't want to. Then he thought I didn't like to spike. _Then_ he hit the nail on the head.

"Kotori-san, do you know how to play volleyball?" Nishinoya asked, his expression with a curved eyebrow retaining.

"N… Yes. Well, I know _how_, but…" He threw the volleyball back to me a tad harder than he had before. I moved out of the way, and it hit the wall behind me.

"You don't want to." He realized, and completed my sentence.

"I _can't_." I corrected.

"You _can_." He insisted. "Watch—try a bump." He threw it up. Instead of putting my hands together, I caught the ball.

"I—"

"Bumping is super easy! It's just like, shoom, huwa, and bam." He demonstrated with his hands.

Though I understood what he was trying to say, I still shook my head. "Nishinoya…"

"C'mon! I hate it when people give up so fast!" He began to raise his voice.

"I'm not." I said firmly.

"You _are_!" He looked at me exasperatedly.

Before I had to explain further, a crescendo of chatter filled the gym before coming to a rest.

"Hey, Aozora-senpai! You're alright!" That enthusiastic voice could only belong to Hinata.

Nishinoya clearly wasn't happy, and didn't try to act so. He went to get another ball, since I was still holding the one he threw.

On the other hand, I didn't want to make them worry. I twisted my embarrassed frown into a smile, and turned to face them. "Yeah! I'm feeling great now. There's no reason to worry, see?"

Nishinoya looked back at me in a mixture of annoyance and shock, like, 'is she really trying to shake it off like that?'

"Yeah!" Hinata agreed with my statement, before following back to pay attention to volleyball and the coaches.

Nishinoya did too. I caught annoyed glances in my direction, which caused a lump in the back of my throat.

I felt bad.

Practice went on until nightfall. It was entertaining to watch the first five minutes, and I had completely forgotten about my dispute with Nishinoya. It seemed that he had, too. But by the first hour I found I was making excuses to go to the washroom, get a drink, a breath of fresh air—_anything_ to get away from the heat and boredom of the gym. I had taken so many notes that my left ring finger was calloused and throbbing.

Luckily, just when I was about to tell the truth about how bored I was, they called it quits for the day.

I vowed to bring my laptop the following day.

"Ah, Aozora-san! Sorry for leaving you out. I forgot you were here. I would've asked you to help make supper with Shimizu-san." Takeda apologized.

"No, it's okay. I obtained a lot of information. Plus, I'm going off to observe Nekoma tomorrow, so today was still efficient." I reasoned.

Takeda smiled, reassured there was no problem.

I cleaned up my belongings before following to eat, where after, in the hallway, I found Tanaka and Nishinoya lying face-down on the floor.

I looked at the others, nonchalantly passing them by as if they were nothing there. I furrowed my eyebrows at Tsukishima and looked at the two bodies for a moment then back to him, trying to display my confusion. He simply rolled his eyes.

So, in other words, it was their theatrics.

"N-Nishinoya-kun… Tanaka-kun… are you okay?" I crouched down next to them.

Nishinoya grabbed my ankle suddenly, like in a horror movie, which startled me. Then he slowly lifted his head, acting as though he was deprived of water and food, while crying for dramatic effect. "It's no good, Kotori-san… we can't…"

My eyes were half-lidded. I saw what Tsukishima meant, now.

I tried to act concerned. "What happened, Nishinoya-kun?"

"Kiyoko-san… she'll be…" He croaked.

He didn't complete his sentence, however, because the door opened, revealing Shimizu in a contrasting pink apron. "Dinner's ready." She said plainly.

Just then, as though someone had gotten cables and jump-started their brains, they were rejuvenated at the sight of her.

And then my palms reacquainted with my forehead.

* * *

I was used to meals being quiet. With the rest of Karasuno, I saw that as impossible.

At the ends of the table, there was apparently a dispute between Kageyama and Hinata (no surprise there), Nishinoya was scolding Tsukishima while Yamaguchi was defending him, and Ennoshita and the rest were lively chatting, with collected laughter coming from their direction every once in a while.

I sat with Shimizu, directly across from Takeda and Ukai.

"So, Aozora-san, where'll you be staying?" Takeda asked, genuinely curious.

"Huh? Oh, I can go to my house, just like Shimizu-senpai is." I said, reassuringly.

Words didn't seem to do the trick. He caught on to my deceit. "You don't live near here, if I recall. You used the train to get to school."

I paused. A good way to get out of this situation…"I can take the train to get home and here, too."

"Aozora-san, that's a bit unreasonable, isn't it? We only got two rooms, but… surely there's another option. We're not allowed to have you go so far this late." Takeda insisted.

Whether it was a choice of going home or being in a room with either middle-aged men or various disruptive teenage boys, I would have gotten on the train right away.

Still, if that wasn't allowed, that didn't leave many options…

"She can stay with me." Shimizu spoke up, quietly but firmly.

"Eh? Is that really alright?" I asked, my eyes fleeting left to right anxiously.

"Yeah. I'll just call my parents and tell them. It shouldn't be a problem." She claimed.

She was incredibly hard to confront, and having to rely on her in such a way was rude.

Still, I couldn't just deny it. What if offering her help was incredibly difficult for her, or something? If I denied it, it would look even worse.

In other words, she just made my situation many times worse.

It wasn't that bad, right? It was like a sleepover… with someone super popular and quiet…

Today wasn't going my way at all.

* * *

I knew it would happen. I called dibs. I even knew I would know it would happen.

After I finished gratuitously using Shimizu's shower, I came out in a long white blouse and shorts under. Then I double-checked everything for the night. I blinked when I couldn't find the case for my contact lenses.

Shifting my bag and ruining what little organization I had, I realized it wasn't in there.

No, no, no. If I didn't have them, I'd be beyond dead. It wasn't like I was _blind_ without them, but no. My parents would have murdered me.

Biting on my lip, I tried to recall where I left it. How could I have forgotten even _taking it out?!_ There had to be a reason.

I groaned. Right. I had ran today.

I hated running. While I felt like I was about to puke, I left it on the sink because they were irritating.

I made a note that when I went home, I would either convert to glasses or none at all.

I thought about looking for it tomorrow. I mean, if I knew where I left it, there was no need to worry, right?

I tried convincing myself to think that way, but in the end, I couldn't deny possibilities.

Like, what if some idiot took them? Or what if they thought it was garbage and threw it away?

Or what if it fell somewhere, like the drain? It would get flushed down, with no hope of _ever_ finding it again, unless you found someone willing to crawl through the sewers of Japan.

What if they handed it in to the lost and found—if they even had one. If they didn't, they'd definitely throw them away.

I didn't even write my name on the cover!

"Shimizu-senpai," I said when she came into the room, "if it's okay with you, I'd like to go look for my contact lenses back at the place." It was unspecific, but I was sure she understood. To be more specific, I elaborated, "You don't have to go with me, or anything. It's just, like, I wanted you to know… because…"

"Yeah, it's okay." She said calmly.

"Thank you…" I bowed in apology and started walking towards the inn.

The walk there itself made me slightly paranoid—I had watched enough news to know how dangerous the streets of _any_ city were. Though I was very far from being able to sprint that far, I quickened my footsteps, causing my hair to fall into my face.

My shadow cast on the pavement by the streetlights lengthened, disappeared, reappeared, and lengthened again and again.

This wasn't the dead of the city. I wasn't familiar with the map, but this _had_ to be the suburbs or countryside of some city. This couldn't be the actual city.

Still. You'd never know. I refused to let my guard down.

Luckily, I made it there in one piece. I looked around, trying to discern my surroundings in the dimly lit hallways.

Turning my head, I saw Hinata, who was holding a towel and a fresh pair of clothes over his shoulder. As soon as he saw me, he gave a terrified expression and bolted.

…Well, that was rude. Karma from earlier today, perhaps?

I thought about calling after him, but I didn't know if anyone was asleep. As to not cause a disturbance, I walked after him.

Walking down, I heard one scream, laughter, another scream, and then Sawamura yelling, "Keep it down!" In the scariest tone I had ever heard come from his mouth. Even though it wasn't directed at me, I still felt a tinge of fear.

I walked over to the smaller washroom I was in, I turned on the lights and, though with difficulty (since the hair in my face created a sort of makeshift darkness) I found them sitting there, just as I had left them. After that, I began to walk back, but before I made it out, I was met with another yell… disturbingly close.

I turned to the corridor to the left of me, and saw a terrified Nishinoya—wait, Nishinoya's hair… was down.

It looked much more fitting and attractive then the unnatural gelled-up version.

Well… maybe not attractive, but it looked way more natural…

I looked to the right to try to see what he was so terrified of, but the corridor was empty. "What?" I asked.

He didn't talk. Whether that was because of terror or confusion, I couldn't tell.

"Um, what's wrong?" I said. Though those words sounded fairly creepy by itself, my tone sounded exasperated and annoyed. I had half a mind that Nishinoya was going to whip out some salt and shower me with it.

But, contrary to expectation, Nishinoya understood rather quickly. "Kotori-san?"

"Yes," I drawled, as if it was obvious from the beginning, "and seriously. Don't make such a ruckus. Sawamura-senpai doesn't sound like a nice person when he's angry."

"He isn't." He replied immediately. "What're you here for, though?" Nishinoya gave an inquisitive tilt of the head.

"I forgot my contacts." I held them up for him to see, though it may have been hard in the bad lighting.

"You wear contacts?" Nishinoya was confused. "Ooh! Do they change colours?"

"No," I stared bluntly, "they don't change the colour of my eyes. But speaking of change…"

I failed to hide my smirk. That might have been a sign of being egotistical or narcissism, but I was extremely humoured by it. I luckily doubted he could tell in the dim lighting. "How tall are you without your hair?" I tried making my voice sound as innocent as possible.

"_HEY!_" If his expression was drawn into a cartoon, he would probably have been sketched with shark teeth while blowing fire to signify his rage.

Of course, though I was usually sensitive when others got mad, I found this hilarious. Both his reaction and my mental image accompanying it.

"Pfft…" A small breath of air escaped.

"Hahaha!" I broke out into laughter, which seemed to calm him down somewhat. He stopped looking angry and gave a half-shocked expression.

"Are you okay…?" He asked, then realized exactly _what _I was laughing about. "Don't l_augh_. I'm still taller than you! … Probably…" He boldly claimed, right before realizing that it was possible he wasn't. Estimating, I likely _was_ if it took away 9cm to 10cm off his height.

"I'm guessing your height isn't 159cm," I claimed, still laughing slightly.

"Shut _up_." He hissed. Though his tone implied he was angry, his eyebrows were furrowed and he had a sort of lopsided smile/frown.

I figured I owed him for teasing him, so I added, "You _do_ look really nice with your hair down."

I decided not to add 'Despite your height' at the start of the sentence.

"Oh. Really…" He scratched his neck and looked to the side.

It was suspiciously dismissive of Nishinoya. I expected a retort or something. I expected more than that, at least.

"Mm-hm. Can't say the same for mine, though." I gestured to myself. "Anyway, I should probably be going… Shimizu-senpai is waiting for me. See you tomorrow, Nishinoya-kun."

"I'll walk you out." He said. "Do you know where the exit is?"

I nodded, and, though the distance was short, it was an extra little bit of time to spend with him.

"So… why were you so terrified?" I asked on our way.

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, you looked really scary."

"So basically, you're comparing me to a horror movie character." I summarized.

"Well, yeah… wait! No! I mean… ARGH." He ran his fingers through his hair. It wasn't gelled up, so it was much different.

"Haha! Anyways, see you!" I said, since we were at the door. Though our conversation was very short, I didn't see it as particularly bad. After that, I took my leave.

While leaving, I caught sight of the gym, which reminded me of something he and I forgot.

We had a fight earlier today. He had gotten over it (or more than likely _forgotten_ about it) with hours of volleyball as a distraction. We had an argument about how incapable I was at volleyball. He insisted I was giving up. I insisted I didn't have the ability in the first place.

I wanted to turn around, open the door, and profusely bow my head and apologize to him, but doing that would remind him of the argument in the first place, and thus that plan of action was impossible.

I couldn't think of a way to make it up to him.

I decided to think about it later—I had a long night ahead of me.

* * *

I had already woken up late, which was a _great_ start to the day.

Still, after that, I rushed off to where Nekoma High School was training. Luckily, Karasuno's volleyball team wouldn't have to _know_ I was late, since I wasn't there.

Nekoma had a few small exhibition games. Karasuno at the end of the week, and Inuzuka today. Since Inuzuka was a good school, but wouldn't verse us in any competitions (almost in a different _prefecture_), I was not asked to observe them. Just Nekoma.

It wasn't a public match, but it wasn't private either. I peeked in through the door, and though the two schools were already halfway through the second set, since I was so late to get up.

I couldn't tell who was winning—Nekoma seemed very close to Inuzuka, but couldn't quite reach. Still, assuming Inuzuka won the first set would have been fallacious judgement.

I looked at Nekoma's setter skeptically. According to what I'd heard from Kageyama in his more arrogant days, the setter was supposed to be the best player.

And yet, when I looked at the setter, he didn't strike me as anything special—he had the same, neutral expression on at all times (aside from occasionally furrowing his eyebrows when Inuzuka got a point), he wasn't particularly strong, he couldn't jump incredibly high to make up for his lack of height, and he didn't have Kageyama's MLG 360-no scope tosses. He didn't have a lack of presence like in an anime I'd watched either, so being a phantom sixth man was out of the question.

Did this team simply have a different strategy in comparison to the usual?

I counted the plays in my head. Receive from #3, set from #5, spike from #1. Diagonal toss. Hit.

Receive from #3, set from #5, spike from #2. Feint with eyes from #5. Backwards toss.

One-touch from #11. Set from #5. Spike from #1 again. Average quick toss. Hit.

One thing I noticed happened right before the last set of the round.

Number 5, their setter, dodged the spike. Even though number 3, the libero, was still able to receive it, it surprised me.

Weren't volleyball players supposed to be masochists that liked waking up with bruises on their arms? He did what I, as a normal person, would do.

Someone who wasn't blessed with muscles of titanium, but instead had a brain smart enough to comprehend common sense.

I stopped right there. The thought hooked me immediately, as though I had caught onto another one of my epiphanies, but it was confirmed by Nekoma's chant as they went back on.

"We are the body's blood—flow smoothly and circulate oxygen so the brain functions normally!" They recited.

What the hell kind of cheer was that? Still, looking at them, they had a similar atmosphere to Karasuno…

They looked at number 5. Following their gazes, I saw him… looking at me. They then disbanded, and number 5 walked up to their captain, number 1.

"Kuroo. Was that girl always there? By the doorway." Number 5 asked. He was quiet, so I had to strain my ears to hear it.

He looked over at me. "I don't know. Let's find out."

I screamed internally. Running away would make me look suspicious—think of the possibilities. I could be a spy, a photographer, a pedophile, a stalker, a criminal… but they were coming straight at me.

I decided to stand there and wait for the inevitable.

"Hey," Kuroo, the taller of the two asked me, "what're you doing here?"

"I-I, um, I'm from… another school, and… and! I was looking for my gym, and… I came across this one since I was in a taxi—a _separate_ taxi here, uh, without my team, and got dropped off because I, uh, thought this was my gym, see, and then I just watched your game and it looked really nice."

It would have been the perfect lie if I hadn't stuttered so much. Its sentence structure was all over the place—I might as well have said it in French. Or _German_.

They seemed to understand it to an extent, though.

Though I was naturally shyer with an unrehearsed script in front of strangers, the stare number 5 gave me was even more pressuring than the stares of hypocritical, stylish and judgmental girls. It just fell short of a teacher's gaze.

It didn't look like he was judging me. The only difference between his look when he didn't know I was here compared to when he knew I was here was that his eyes were slightly widened.

But it was that small gesture that set me on edge. Just those cat-like eyes staring at me, as though wondering if he should pluck my feathers off first or simply eat me whole.

That may have been a bit of an exaggeration, since he didn't look aggressive at all.

"What school are you from?" Kuroo asked again.

"Me? I'm Aozora Kotori, from Karasuno High School. And you are?" I asked. Luckily, my statement correlated with my lie from earlier. I added the last part in an attempt to socialize.

The looked at me, both with analytical gazes.

No. No, there was no way the rumor got close to them. I wasn't _that popular_. What was it, then? Maybe they suspected my lie because I was part of Karasuno. They heard we were playing them, surely.

"Tetsurou Kuroo." Kuroo claimed.

"Kozume Kenma." The setter said.

"We're starting!" A teammate yelled at the two of them.

"Right. Anyway," Kuroo, the more social one, looked at me. "This is a private match. Your school isn't here, too. I think they're further down the road, though." With that, he looked at Kozume. "Let's go, then."

"Yeah." The soft-spoken setter said and began to head off with Kuroo, but turned back towards me for a moment before continuing onto the court.

* * *

The day to the match came fast.

I went inside with Shimizu to help her prepare for the game—retrieving towels, helping pull out the cart of volleyballs, etcetera.

"Um, I'm… terribly sorry for the inconvenience I'm giving you." I said, a bit quietly but loud enough for her to hear me.

"What do you mean?" Her expression didn't change in the slightest.

"Well, I mean… it's kind of rude. Having to stay at your place on a whim, unplanned… plus, I don't even really know you. Not that I don't want to, of course! It's just…" I looked to the side sheepishly and decided to stop there in fear of digging an even deeper pit for myself.

"Like I said before, it's not a problem." Shimizu claimed. She just continued what she was doing, so I couldn't be sure if she was just dismissing my worries by lying or telling the truth and hiding her feelings by continuing her work.

"Right… right. Well, um, let's hurry. The… 'super managers' need to go save the team!" What the hell was that?! That joke was incredibly forced and overall horrible.

She smiled, but just a tad—I believed it was at my failure and embarrassment rather than my joke.

Since only one manager was allowed to be on the bench, I went up to the stands. A few guys on the other team seemed to be interested in Shimizu by was sneaking glances at her during the breaks, which was pretty common at that point.

The game started. I looked down at my notes.

Indeed, what I wrote in my notes was true—or at least looked true enough from my newbie perspective.

I continued jotting down notes.

The person who caught my attention was Kozume Kenma, however.

Like said, he wasn't strong, he didn't have Hinata's kind of vertical, he wasn't a Japanese middle-schooler Usain Bolt, and he wasn't that agile.

But he was smart.

His situation analysis speed was ridiculously good. Nekoma's players called him their 'brain', too. His accuracy was good too.

I wondered if I could've played like that, too.

Yet, it was impossible for me. I couldn't convince anyone to practice with me, or make me the setter—they would just mention that the setter was the best player on the team, and no matter how logical my argument was that the setter didn't _have _to be, it would just seem arrogant, desperate, and they'd dismiss it completely.

I watched—both in awe towards him and half in disappointment towards myself—at Nekoma's setter.

Similar, yet so different.

I found myself staring at that.

I was broken out of my daze when the referee blew the whistle.

I looked down at my page. Aside from their general information, and a few terms about athletic ability, only a little bit of information about them was written down.

They were already in their last set. Time flew! I started jotting down as many notes as I could.

Even though the cats and crows below were making a variety of facial expressions, I didn't feel all that much.

It was just a game. One that I could even record in simplistic notes. It was like studying, and I didn't find studying particularly interesting.

What was it that fueled those volleyball dorks?

When I looked at the two teams before me, I saw literary foils of each other (a term coined by Takeda-sensei), meaning that were similar, but different, with one main thing connecting them: volleyball. Their opposites complimented each other—like Hinata and Kageyama, or Nishinoya and Azumane.

Well, in terms of what we had in common, both Yamamoto and Tanaka liked Shimizu, but that didn't matter.

It was entertaining to see how invested they were in one match. Kageyama was failing to coordinate with Hinata because Hinata wanted to keep his eyes open, Hinata seemed to have a rivalry with Inuoka, and Nishinoya kept sneaking glances at their libero during plays.

I watched the game's last play. Karasuno spiked and spiked and continued to spike, but it was fruitless. Each time, the other team would receive it. It wasn't a good receive—it was a chance ball every time. But it kept the ball in play.

Finally, when I thought Karasuno would finally receive the point, the ball only centimeters from the ground, I caught a wisp of blond hair and a light 'thunk'.

But the ball hadn't hit the ground.

It hit Kozume Kenma's, no, Nekoma's setter's hand, and he managed to flip it over to the other side, behind the entire team. The two who reacted fast enough to it, Nishinoya and Hinata, ran to reach it with Nishinoya even trying to dive to get it, but to no avail.

Final point.

Nekoma's win.

Everyone on Karasuno's team looked rather disappointed, shocked, or frustrated by their loss. Takeda let out a breathy groan and switched from his excited, fists balled position to sitting down lazily.

Nekoma seemed mostly estatic or happy—except for their setter, Kozume, who remained the same.

Well, that was that, then…

"One more."

I was putting away my notes when I heard Hinata's request. It was simple, determined and straightforward.

"One more." He repeated. Everyone from Karasuno stared at him, wide-eyed from his bold claim. "Let's do it!"

I didn't understand. After a loss, he wanted to continue?

I wasn't sure how I felt towards his motivation. It was stupid. It was so incredibly stupid, and useless, and wouldn't even matter, in the end. Pointless.

And yet… and yet, I admired it.

Just a little bit.

I pulled out my notebook and pencil again.

* * *

You know that feeling like after you finish an exam or something, and you feel super tired after? Or maybe not an _exam_, but a test that puts you under pressure?

While sleep deprived?

Yeah. That was essentially how I felt. On my ring finger there was a bump—calloused skin from writing.

Hinata's _'one more'_ wasn't just one. It was six games, and Nekoma managed something new every time. It soon became repetition, and while my mental stamina was good—or at least, I liked to consider as such—as aforementioned, I was very tired from lack of sleep.

Though, the other boys were even more exhausted than I was. Some hardly standing, some panting, all sweating.

"_One more!_" Hinata exclaimed again. I groaned, and I think everyone else died a little too, until Ukai grabbed Hinata by the cuff of his shirt as if to restrain him. His excuse was to catch the bullet train, and though I know that was part of the reason, I had a feeling there was a bit more to that.

After I went down, they huddled up and talked about… something. I think there was something about an old buddy and rivalry, whatever that meant.

Then everyone went to go put things away or socialize with the other team.

I looked at their setter. He was just standing there, as if supervising the clean up.

Then I realized: he wasn't just doing that. He was doing the exact same thing I was doing—staying low-key so that he didn't have to do any of the work.

Probably, at least.

I wanted to talk to him, but I couldn't find a way to do it properly.

If I started off complimenting him, he probably would've just said 'thank you', and that would be that. That would have been a waste of words.

I could talk to him about the things I observed—the way his neck was pointed down normally said how people were reserved and quiet, but it was also a sign of looking at a mobile screen too much, like an iPod, DS, or PSP. But if I talked to him about that, it probably would've made me sound really creepy.

Maybe if I just said a little 'hi' and/or 'what's up'… no. I would have the same ideas in my head: why is this person talking to me, what do they want with me, did I do something wrong, what did I do now.

Just as I was thinking, _screw it, I'll just try talking about anything_, Kuroo, his friend, came up to him and started talking to him.

I would have immediately made a U-turn, but I caught their conversation.

"You know that girl's been looking at you for a bit, right?" Kuroo asked.

Kozume didn't reply. He just glanced at me for a second before turning back to staring at the floor.

How _was_ he supposed to reply to that? Though, he didn't leave, which was a sign he didn't find me scary, since I'd seen him run away from a glaring Kageyama earlier. I was glad I didn't look scary. I didn't see myself as threatening, either.

So, in just an attempt to be social, I didn't do anything like talk to him. I remained a neutral expression and waved before turning heel and leaving.

That made me seem even more confusing and contradictory! I groaned. I looked around and saw Nishinoya staring just as intently as I was, except at their liber, Morisuke, who seemed to have noticed Nishinoya's stare.

"Number 3, your receives were amazing." Nishinoya complimented. On the first word, Morisuke shot straight up. "I've never seen anyone able to receive so many of our ace's spikes. Your entire team is high-caliber, and you're their libero. I think you have amazing talent. I'm going to do my best, too. Goodbye." He bowed and ran in a different direction, leaving a confused Morisuke and Sugawara in his dust.

As I followed him, just within earshot, I heard Morisuke say, "He's a high-caliber libero too, but he's not at all arrogant about it. On the contrary, he only seeks to improve. That's scary."

Ignoring Morisuke's words, I continued to go in the direction Nishinoya left in: the storage room.

It wasn't dusty, since it was used quite a lot by others that went to training camp, but it was _dark_. I could hardly make out Nishinoya in it, if not for his bright orange uniform.

"Nishinoya-kun. Nishinoya-kun!" I called out. He turned and beamed.

"Hey, Kotori-san! What's up?" Nishinoya asked. He was back to his usual, bubbly self.

I felt as though I had been keeping to myself in the past few days, even though my only reason for even being on the team was for him.

The volleyball team opened a lot of opportunities to socialize with the others, but other than a few special events and small talk, we hadn't really spoken.

And that would have been fine. It was just that…

"Is something wrong?" He asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked around nervously, which caused his smile to slip into concern.

It was probably best if I didn't tell him specifically.

"No, no, nothing's wrong, y'see! I just wanted to say you were amazing today. Well, you're amazing during every practice, even though I don't say it, but this is kinda your first _real_ match… er, real _practice_ match I've seen, and… yeah! Yeah, I don't think their libero was the only awesome one, in short!"

He looked a little surprised for a second, but then smiled. "Haha, thanks!"

And that was it. There was nothing overdramatic, nothing I had to elaborate on, and he wasn't cocky at all—just what Morisuke had said. That was just how I wanted it.

"Well then, do you need help cleaning anything up?" I said, preventing the awkward silence before it appeared.

"Nope! We've got just about everything." He reassured.

"Alright, alright." I agreed. "Hey, can I sit with you on the bus back?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah? Why're you asking?" He asked. Then he interjected with, "But I call the aisle seat!"

"Obviously, if you wanted to sit with Tanaka-kun or someone else though, I have no objections! Like, feel free to tell me, because… yeah."

"It's fine, it's fine!" He grinned, and pat me on the back while jogging to catch up with the others. I followed him at my own pace.

* * *

Even though I had a bunch of discussion topics on the way back, everyone was exhausted—even those who hadn't played, like Takeda-sensei and the Coach. Though I'd gotten Nishinoya to sit by me, he looked ready to pass out, as most of the others already had.

"Tired?" I asked him. I had figured he was just listening, but his head was resting against his propped-up hand, and his eyes were shut.

I sighed through my nose. The bus hit the train tracks, and shook the entire bus. Nishinoya groaned in his sleep, and leaned over and put his head on my lap with a small groan.

"Sorry, 'Tori-san, you mind?" His voice was unexpectedly quiet—barely audible, even—and came out as though muttering. He must have _really_ been tired after six games.

"No! No, 'course not." I said, though a bit higher pitched than I intended. I wasn't sure if he heard me, because he was already dozing off.

I leaned my own head against the glass, and looked down at him. Even though, on occasion, he would let out a loud snore, a pale mirror of his usual vivacious voice, he looked peaceful.

For once.

I absentmindedly played with the tips of his hair. He was asleep anyway.

It was true. I wanted to get to know him more than I currently did. I mean, though he didn't look like he held a bunch of secrets and seemed like a somewhat honest person, it wasn't like I knew everything.

I also didn't want to be a drag to him, where he couldn't socialize with his friends just because _I_ was socially awkward.

I wanted a lot of things that would drag me out of my comfort zone.

No—not exactly my comfort zone. I was fine with talking to people, but I didn't want to be judged badly.

But as for right now, staring out the window, making a joke to myself about how dramatic the action looked. But somehow, it was calming being around him.

* * *

"Ngh…" Nishinoya moved his head up to face the ceiling, but saw a girl's face staring straight back at him.

This caused his own eyes to widen as he panicked and reached to sit up out of instinct, though since he was lying on my lap, his left hand reached towards the air and fell out with a surprised yelp, the other hand hitting me before he ended up in the aisle.

"_Ow_," I muttered, rubbing my forehead. "Uh, are you okay?"

He was trying to get up after falling in the small space between the chair and the back of the one in front, a rather cramped space.

"Oh, uh, yeah!" He claimed, sitting back in his chair. "Just a bit surprised, that's all."

"You were the one who asked to, remember?" I said, seeing if he recalled. He thought for a moment, and then raised his eyelids.

"Oh, right!"

I did the action I most commonly associated with him.

I hit my forehead with my palms.

* * *

**tu tu ruuuu~!**

**this is very literally the longest chapter i've ever written on fanfiction. so i hope the wait was okay.**

**a bit of cute/cliche/sappy things in this chapter, depending on how you look at it, but nothing over-the-top. i'd like to think i made it a bit believable.**

***Asura - Wikipedia: Asura, in Buddhism, is the name of the lowest ranks of the deities or demigods of the Kāmadhātu. They are described as having three heads with three faces and four to six arms.**

****Second year middle schooler - equivalent to a grade seven, by elementary standards. alternately, second year junior high student.**

**Yuuki no Yuki:**** thank youuu! things'll unfold the way things would naturally go, so i can't reveal aanything! they're pretty platonic right now tho, that's fo sho. again, thanks!**

**Ara le Yama Raja:****i've actually played for a lot of sports. i don't mind if they're bad bc i'm not all that genius either, but i like it better when they try because it also affects my grades xD . in my defense, some people don't _want_ to be on and don't do anything, and i don't think the teacher should force them on since they don't want to, and then _also _penalize the students who are actually trying and/or doing well. ****also, yes, pain isn't a competition, i agree completely.  
also, actually, aozora can understand his words, surprisingly (but mainly because of the actions accompanied with it).  
thanks for reviewing (and the luck!) **

**Zecrea:**** it might be poutiness, but that's up to you. also, it's very possible nishinoya's showed development without notice, since the story is told from aozora's perspective. it'll come by more obviously more often, don't worry! thanks for reviewing!**

**Guest(1)****: mentioned that in this chapter, but she's different. they're most common features are being quiet and being smart, basically, which are both their main features, and i can see how you got where you were from. still, she's based off of the common, smart introvert. thanks for reviewing! :)**

**Browniegami: CAPS LOCK IS GOLD. ahem. i'd like to keep it that way, but pls don't expect it to not have bumps and stuff because i'm just experimenting as of now. i hope you still liked it though! thanks for reviewing, i'll try not to betray your expectations!**

**Guest(2): thank you for the review! ^_^ **

**hokshi: click and drag games are great. also, tanaka _is_ a second year. he looks older though, so i can see where you get it from, but it says on the wiki he's a second-year.  
and haha i'm guessing this chapter answered a lot of your questions so.  
as for her own passions, she actually doesn't really have any. like i said to others, it's realistic, so it's pretty common for a second-year highschooler to not have an idea about their future jobs. she has what her parents want her to do, which is what she's planning on doing, but nothing on her own. her main passion is to have _good_ friends. just a bit of an explanation.  
i'll try to have her communicate more with the others like i did in this chapter, but since the overall pairing is her and Nishinoya, most of them will be with him, clearly. thanks for reviewing and the critique! i'll do my best!**

**Diclonious57: u r 2 kyute**

**Human Marshmallow: i based her skills off of what a guy at my school does for the guys' team, momoi, and matsuoka gou from Free!. good job catching the references! i'll try to update faster, but no promises!**

**and that concludes this chapter. 10,452 words at this period -.**

**i'll try editing this soon. **

**you've read quite a lot of my trash/gold. hope you liked this!**

**#ssb**


	7. Preparation

**Sky Ball**

**VII. Preparation**

* * *

**Thanks to: LuCkY-StAr69, fourthbullet, Nazo-san, HPforeva88, Majolin, BreeBrutal, u, Katarin Kishika, ballet022, kim123kn, Skywaters, faded . ember, I-Like-Sprinklers, AmandaPlease019, zZhell-butterflyZz, mimichiro, Eviclair, kimikokimono, Miss PPPP, PikaRock, CrystalNyx, princessinshiningarmor, The Shades of Gray, volley-14-nerd, Cadell, Azulish, MentalExplosion, Salome Maranya, MusicalWolf00, kalmaegi, albumplush, Addicted-to-GazettE, Ara le Yama Raja, CaraTheWitch, Anon (Guest), Diclonious57, Nameless (Guest) and Bergliot for favouriting/following/reviewing/whatever!**

* * *

Since the past few days had been repetitive training and pep talks in the volleyball club, I hadn't been going as regularly, except to give Takeda-sensei or Coach Ukai my notes.

So I hadn't gone to the volleyball club for a bit. So what?

The last thing I expected was for _it_ to come to _me_.

I was sitting in class alone, absentmindedly scribbling in the free margins of my notes when I saw Karasuno's male captain himself poke his head through my classroom and ask, "Um, hi, is Aozora-san here?"

My classmate, Hayabusa Kazuto, who was hanging out with his usual clique looked over at me, responding to Sawamura's question faster than everyone else, "Right there."

Sawamura waved at me. "Can I ask you something?"

I nodded and temporarily put my things in a neat pile on my desk as I went to meet him in the hallway.

"Did you need something?" I asked, trying to sound open. Did I do something wrong? I probably did something wrong.

"Yeah. Uh, you know how the sports pep rally's coming, right?" He asked. I nodded. "Right. I don't mean to rely on you too much, but could you help me out with the speech? Or edit it, or something?"

I blinked. Nope, he was still there. I nodded vigorously. "Well, yeah, I will, but I'd like to let you know: I haven't helped anyone since, like, sixth grade." I tapped my feet on the marble.

"It's fine, even if you just edit it." He smiled reassuringly.

"Alright," I agreed, but then furrowed my eyebrows. "But why me? I mean, you're very capable in the first place. It's not like you need a peer-edit. Plus, couldn't you ask another third-year?"

"I could, but you're on the volleyball team, and it'd be nice to get to know you better too. Plus, when the class test rankings were public posted, you scored—"

"Not too loud!" I interjected, coming off a bit louder than I'd planned. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound so rude… it's just…" I looked back towards my classroom. If it was just Sawamura, I didn't mind.

"Alright, I got it." He agreed.

"When do you want to meet up? You have volleyball practice today and Friday, then again on Monday. I heard Nakamura-sensei is planning on making you write a Chemistry essay on Monday though, so you might be busy then, considering Nakamura-sensei's usual deadlines. So… Wednesday and Thursday I can do. How about you?"

"How… do you know Nakamura-sensei's upcoming essays?" Sawamura asked, eyes wide. Oh god. I sounded creepy.

"No, it's just… one of the third-years mentioned the end-of-unit tests last year, and mentioned there was an essay a week befo… let's just say it's a long story…?"

Sawamura let out a bit of a nervous laugh. Or at least, that's what I gathered from his knitted eyebrows. "Alright. I'm free on Wednesday and Thursday."

"How about the library? It's open after school, and no one dare talks." I claimed.

"Sounds good." He agreed. "See you then, Aozora-san."

* * *

"It's good. It's very touching when you mention it's your last year." I finished reading it, and handed it back to him. He sighed in relief.

"Is it, really…?" He asked. "Or are you just saying that?"

Damn. Hit the nail on the head within seconds.

His speech wasn't bad. It definitely didn't _need_ fixing. It was fine as it was. The grammar was good, and it was well-written. But as a perfectionist, I could clearly see small faults.

Plus, he was my senpai. You don't correct your senpai—senpai is supposed to correct you. It would've seemed out of place. So I settled with a neutral zone.

"If I were nitpicking, I could say a few things, but I was telling the truth. It was good." I said.

"Tell me what you're nitpicking." He insisted.

"I don't—"

"Aozora-san, I either go in with this speech and make a fool out of myself, or you tell me what you think and I fix it." He said.

"You won't be a _fool_." I said honestly. He wouldn't be close to a fool. Everyone would love it. Not everyone read into speeches as deeply as I did. In fact, no matter the change, some people would have thought the speech he had was perfect. What if he took my advice and incidentally made it worse? I could have been wrong. "It's really good. I promise that's true."

"Tell me." He said, sounding slightly threatening. I moved away from him a bit.

"Do you _really_ want me to? I swear it won't help. It won't do anything. It'll probably only make it worse." I said. He nodded, resolutely.

"What do you _want_ your team to do? We get that you guys wanna go to Nationals and stuff, but what do you want to tell your team? Do you want to focus on the memories, or the practice and effort required?" I asked. I suggested shutting off my feelings to give my opinion unbiased, but I couldn't. Not yet. Not without seeming like a jerk.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

_There was no clear, real message; it was a bunch of flowery words strung together. It sounded good, and there was no doubt everyone would think it was good, but other then that little bit at the end—'let's do our best and go to Nationals', there was no message. You spend a lot of time talking about the hard work you guys put in—which isn't bad, of course, but… yeah._

That was what I wanted to tell him. I wanted to be straightforward and simple. But of course I couldn't. "You should put more of what you want the team to do. Maybe a little bit throughout?" I suggested.

"Yeah, I get it." He said, and began jotting notes down.

He handed me the finished copy, and I read it over again. "Perfect. That's brilliant, Sawamura-senpai." I smiled at him reassuringly.

"Thanks, Aozora-san." He sighed, "Now to rewrite all of this on cue cards."

I gave him a small thumbs-up and smile in support. He let out a bit of a laugh. "You should smile more often. It makes you a lot easier to confront."

Eh…? That was the second time I received such a compliment, but this one elaborated more. "I'm hard to confront?"

"No, no, not really! I didn't mean it offensively, at all—" he waved his hands. Right. Sawamura was the type who didn't like drama. Of course he would dismiss it immediately after.

So I took heed of his advice, and smiled it off. I gave a single, small chuckle, as if to say, _It's funny how much he's worrying about it, it's no big deal._ "No, really, thanks for telling me."

He smiled back, but furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head as though he was confused.

Because of that, I asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Nope! Nothing." I could tell he was lying, but I could also tell he wouldn't tell me. It was almost like payback for not telling him about the small details in his speech.

"Alright then, should we call it a day?" Sawamura suggested, though he was already getting up and putting his papers back in his bag.

"Yup! I guess I'll see you in the club sometime, Sawamura-senpai!" I smiled yet again. While I was leaving, I waved.

* * *

I sat at home in my usual spot: the spinning chair in front of my laptop. The glare of the computer screen reflected off of my reading glasses as I played a game.

The minute I lost, I sighed, closed the tab, and leaned back in my chair, watching the ceiling fan spin around and around.

I thought about my speech-editing session with Sawamura—no, more accurately, what he had said before that.

_You're on the volleyball team, and it'd be nice to get to know you better too._

I originally wanted to become sort-of friends with the team, but I never actively attempted to do so.

I thought for a moment. What would a casual way to become friends with everyone be?

I furrowed my eyebrows. It would've been best to start with the hardest. Even though the volleyball team was one team overall, there were certain people you could befriend that would generally lead to others. Just like how making friends with Nishinoya allowed me to hang out with the rest of the volleyball club.

I named each member of the team in my head, but I didn't have to consider him when I got to him. I _knew_ he'd be the hardest to get along with.

Tsukishima Kei.

What type of personality would go along best with Tsukishima, as a friend? What type of person would get along with him?

There was his best friend (I think?) Yamaguchi. But Yamaguchi seemed to just go along with all of Tsukishima's jokes. Even so, it wasn't something everyone could do. For example, if I went along with his joke, he wouldn't think much of it from me. He wouldn't think _anything_ of it, most likely.

So that was a way to keep things as they were, and it wouldn't have an effect on our relationship. It might've just been worse, if the person he was offending would get mad at me for going with it.

I tried taking a step in Tsukishima's shoes. A smart guy, who liked a challenge, but hated losing.

Hot-blooded types like Hinata or Nishinoya would have just annoyed him. Cool types was a type he wouldn't want to deal with. In fact, they would be annoying in their own way, too. Shy types, like me, would be a bother to deal with. I mean, if you insulted them once, they'd take it to heart, and—

And that was it. If I were like Tsukishima, I would hate _actually_ hurting people for no reason. If I teased someone for fun and they got all teary and emotional, I wouldn't care much, but it wouldn't be that funny anymore. It would ruin the joke.

It was a _joke_.

A mean one, of course, but a joke none the less. And Tsukishima was a guy who liked challenge.

Of course, if I won, that would peeve him to no end. So I'd have to let him win.

Plan set.

* * *

Tsukishima Kei.

I came to morning practice the next day, pretending to assess the team's growth, but mainly trying to become friends with Tsukishima.

(Well, the way I was doing it would _not_ end up in a 'friendship' with Tsukishima, but it would be _something_.)

After practice, I decided to help with the tear-down for the first time. I pretended that I couldn't reach the top of the net to take it down, and looked at Tsukishima.

"H-Hey, _Hotaru-kun_*, would you mind helping me take this down? I can't reach." I exaggerated his misread name so that he'd know I was presenting him with a challenge. It was subtle, and he was the only person focusing on the conversation that knew I had just joked with him. It was a bit weak for a challenge, though. I left more than one opportunity to give a comeback.

He looked surprised for a moment, but remained stoic with his comeback, "For such a _genius_, I thought you'd know my first name is _Kei_, not _Hotaru_."

So he was going the 'smart' route. "Not everyone can be as smart as you are," I said back, feigning innocence in an exaggerated way. He wasn't stupid.

He was smirking. That was good. "You know, I can see why you'd have so much trouble getting this down. These nets are for high school students, not kindergarteners."

"Anyone with that kind of height can only be called a Sasquatch." I replied.

He undid the knot that tied the volleyball net up. "You say Sasquatch, but there are way more advantages of being tall than short. This is only one example. Of course, I'm not making fun of your disadvantages... or could it be that you're _jealous?_"

"'Course not. Being short is the only reason I'm passing gym. It's harder to hit me in dodgeball, I can always steal a base in baseball... plus, it's easier to reach into small places." I said back.

"Yeah, but being tall gives you a huge advantage in gym. Just try reaching for this." He held the net up high.

"Foul play." I said, frowning. He snorted. I could probably reach it if I pulled his arm down while I jumped instead of directly reaching for the net, but there was no point.

"That one was smooth." I finished the argument there. "You're pretty good at that."

"Really." He said, his voice still dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah, Oscar-worthy." I replied as he dropped the rest of the volleyball net in my arms.

As I walked to the equipment room, I nearly had a nervous breakdown. Was that okay? Did I seem cocky? Oh, god. What if he didn't think any of that was a joke at all? What if he didn't understand my sarcasm?

I took a peek back at him. He was trying to take down one of the poles, along with Azumane and Sugawara. But looking at his face, he had the smallest—the _teeniest_ mix of a smile in between that smirk, and exhaled a bit deeply once through his nose, in half a laugh.

And that calmed me down.

* * *

Later on in the day was the pep rally. Luckily, as a manager, Shimizu and I didn't have to stand up on stage with them.

The boys' volleyball team was fifth, following just before the girls'.

Most of the members simply stood at attention in the background (and I saw Tanaka throw a peace sign towards the audience for a moment, before Sugawara swatted his hand away). Sawamura stood up on the podium, delivering the speech as the Volleyball team's captain.

Honestly, the entire pep rally was more subjugated in silence by teachers anyway, which ruined the whole pep-rally feel. Generally, everyone knew that only the students _in_ sports clubs wanted to be there, and those students likely only wanted to listen to their own captain speak.

Sawamura's speech was very good. The people paying attention smiled when Sawamura recalled memories of practicing their asses off, and gave serious expressions when he spoke about their effort put in to win. Just that small gesture was more than a few teams got. It had enough humor to keep their focus, and enough serious elements to make the teachers think they weren't fooling around.

And I could swear the clapping was the tiniest bit louder when the volleyball team descended the stairs and sat together.

* * *

Deciding to make more of an effort with Nishinoya, I went over to his classroom. I took a deep breath and gave a smile as I opened the door and asked, "Is Nishinoya-kun here?"

One of the guys turned their attention to me. They were shocked for a second (or so it had seemed), but said, "Uh, no… you just missed him."

He was always punctual when it came to volleyball, at least. I nodded to the boy. "Th-Thanks anyway!"

God damn it. Still a stutter. It was only once, but it was still something. The worst part was that I'd stuttered on a rehearsed line.

While maintaining a stoic nature but storming like Kageyama would on the inside, I walked down to the volleyball club. Shimizu was cleaning up the equipment room today, and I figured I could take a bit of time to help her.

And then I ran across Tanaka, coincidentally.

"A-Aozora-san!" He exclaimed, straightening up the moment he saw me.

_… Do I really look _that_ strict? Or is it just another one of his exaggerations?_ I asked myself. Using my quick thinking skills, what would've been the type of person Tanaka got along best with? … Hm, well…

That'd be a feral, confrontational, confident, ebullient, a Large Ham, Nishinoya-like personality.

Which I knew there was no way, in a million years, I would match. I couldn't act anything like Nishinoya, because the minute I started showing the same amount of wildness Nishinoya had, people wouldn't find it friendly—they would run for the hills.

Plus, I couldn't downplay that personality because of how much it stood out, which would render my subterfuge with everyone else meaningless.

So something else. Who else did he particularly like—

Shimizu. Yeah, she was the object of his affections, too, but that was mainly because she was _cute_, from what I could gather. Since acting cold wouldn't 'turn him on' (which I wouldn't want it to anyway—ew. Thinking about it properly, I was starting to pity the beauty), I would have to be cool, calm, and nice. Watch the stutters. Don't laugh at him; laugh with him. Be polite. Mature. Calm.

After finishing my internal syllogism, I decided to act that way. Just like a Student Council member. I gently smiled. "Hi, Tanaka-kun. Something wrong?" I furrowed my eyebrows a bit, but kept the smile.

So far so good.

It was his turn to be surprised. Or confused. Whatever the hell that expression on his face meant. "Uh. Are you okay?"

"A-Okay." Smooth. "You're going to volleyball, right? I'll come with."

"Alrighty." It was a simple response. He pulled his bag out of his locker.

He still looked a bit confused. It was probably at the sudden change. Crap, I overlooked that he'd been in a class with me; I should've made it more subtle. Or progressive, like, _Hey, we're friends now, let me gradually warm up to you._ This was too sudden.

Well, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

While reciting the old adage, I decided to initiate the conversation, just this once. "So, are you excited for the tournament?"

"Yeah! I'm all fired up!" He exclaimed. Talking about his passion seemed to distract him from my change in personality.

"Your facial expression is… a bit unnerving." I said honestly—an experiment to see if he'd agree or disagree, as well as it's effects. I was pretty sure he was doing it on purpose.

"Hell yeah!" He cheered. Oh. Wait.

"When I say 'unnerving', I mean… a bit creepy."

"Yeah, but we'll definitely beat them this year, for sure! And everyone else! Then we'll make it to the Nationals!" Tanaka exclaimed, a confident grin plastered across his face.

I sped up my steps so we would get there faster. I was running out of things to talk about. "Mmhm. With our trusty wing spiker Tanaka-kun and libero Nishinoya-kun!"

I paused. Why did I need to add Nishinoya? I knew he was widely accepted as amazing, but I'd _only_ mentioned him. "A-And our setters, Kageyama-kun and Sugawara-senpai… of course, our other wing spiker, Azumane-senpai… and our middle blockers, Tsukishima-kun and Hinata-kun… and—" Crap. That was so off the mark. That wasn't even similar to cool and calm and whatever else I'd decided.

Luckily, we reached the gym in time. I could cut myself off. "And… looks like I gotta go! I'm cleaning up the equipment room with Shimizu-senpai, so…!" I waved to him and jogged to the equipment room, where Shimizu was already stationed. She was putting away a few scattered pinnies. My aesthetics weren't pleased, so I walked over to where she put all of them and began colour-coding them.

"Hello." She greeted, her same dulcet voice resonating in the closed space.

Shimizu's type…

… Crap. I had no clue. She seemed to want to try to get to know me while I was acting normally, but…

Even when I was acting normally, I was trying to plan out what to say and do. I had no clue about now. For lack of better act, I decided to stay quiet—I'd let her initiate the conversation if she wanted to.

No reply came. Just the muffled sounds of volleyballs from outside the equipment room doors.

The silence continued for a while. Then Shimizu gave a small, surprised noise from where she was and called me over. "Look at this."

I set a basketball down and walked over. She was crouched over a large cardboard box, and was studying it's contents carefully.

"What is it?" I asked. She pulled it out and held the edges. Her wingspan was nowhere near long enough to cover the entire thing—god, no—but it was long enough to clearly make out the single word plastered across the fabric.

_Fly._

"It's a perfect banner." I marveled. "It's not in perfect condition, though…"

Shimizu looked over her hands and down at the banner. "It was the team's banner a few years ago. I can't believe I found it…" She adorned one of her rare smiles as she stared incredulously at the banner. Nishinoya and Tanaka would've fainted right then and there.

"It'll look really trashy if we put it up like this…" I spoke unconsciously.

"It's fine. I'll fix it." Shimizu claimed. I was worried that I'd said such an insult out loud, but continued.

Should I have encouraged her? Or should I have offered to help? I bit my lip. I really didn't want to, because it would take up too much time… and I was lazy.

"Do you want to help?" Shimizu asked. Crap.

I thought for a moment, my feelings mixed. But I eventually came to a conclusion I believed. "No… they'll appreciate it more if it comes from you." I reasoned, and started to get back to cleaning everything else.

Maybe it was the truth. Maybe it was so that I didn't feel as selfish for being lazy. Maybe it was self-pity. But she still clearly said, "I don't think so."

I smiled. It was almost laughable. A cockamamie opinion.

"I do." I gave my simple answer that attempted to ward her off. I didn't want to carry it out longer. True to theory, the introverted girl didn't rebut.

Good.

After Shimizu and I finished cleaning up (or at least deeming it 'clean enough'), practice was ending and the Coach was sharing a few sentimental or strategic musings. Shimizu managed to conceal the banner and shove it in her bag.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret." I said. She nodded. That was it.

I was going to be the first one out the door until I was interrupted by Nishinoya. A bit more subdued than usual due to pushing his body to do undeniably stupid things, but still as extroverted as ever. "Kotori-san! Wanna go to the Convenience Store with everyone? Daichi-san is getting everyone steamed buns!"

_Everyone?_

"The entire team?" I asked, widening my eyes.

"Yeah… if you don't want to come, just say so." He said, misinterpreting my expression.

"No, no, I do." My mouth curved a bit. "I just need to call my parents."

"Alright!" Nishinoya cheered, then walked over to the others.

I pulled out my phone, hoping to get enough time alone to think about how to juggle everyone's different preferences together.

* * *

It was starting to get tiring, and we had just gotten the freaking steamed bun.

They kept talking about the Interhigh (I think? I didn't even know, god.)

It was probably because of the shift from spring to summer, but daylight savings hadn't kicked in. In other words, the horizon was dyed a purple that added a shade the further you looked up into the sky.

The street lights were already on, which made the volleyball team's cast shadows look a lot taller than the actual team was.

I looked away from the street our silhouettes were laid out on and tracked them to their owners—the team members.

I wasn't sure how to act around Ennoshita, Kinoshita, Narita, Hinata, and only had a vague idea about Kageyama, so I decided to keep my distance from them. They didn't seem like the type to confront me (with the exception of Hinata, but he _really_ looked deeply immersed in his conversation with Kageyama).

"Tsukishima, where's Yamaguchi?" Sugawara asked.

"Oh, he said he had something to do." Tsukishima replied nonchalantly. He then went to go eat his steamed bun in-between me and the first years.

"Ow, ow! It's hot!" Hinata shouted, fumbling over his steamed bun.

"Isn't that obvious?" Kageyama snapped.

Tsukishima muttered, "Of course it is. Just not for him."

"Hey, what'd you say?!" Hinata glared. Tsukishima's smirk started to rise.

"I was just pointing out how only an _idiot_ could think a _steamed bun_ was—"

Here.

"Hotaru-kun, don't start _another_ argument." I interrupted. I could try it like this.

He rolled his eyes. "Clever." He could be certain I was just screwing with him at that point by misreading his name twice.

"It was just a mistake, but thank you." I lied, speaking in a voice a little too innocent for a 'mistake'.

"And how many times can you make that mistake? It gets boring real quick." Tsukishima claimed.

"Theoretically, I _can_ make it every time I say your name." I said.

"Doesn't mean you should."

"Never said I would."

"You need to find a better hobby." He remarked, rolling down the paper around his steamed bun a bit more.

"I've got a bunch. That's just one of them."

"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard."

"If that's your best comeback, I think you rule me out."

"I'd like to see you do better. After you're done butchering my name, that is." He joked.

Hinata and Kageyama darted their attention from person to person. They seemed like they didn't know what to think. Luckily, I decided to put the lid on it there. "Fine then. Is Kei-kun alright then?" I smiled and tilted my head. It was time for the convivial side.

No doubt he thought that calling him 'Kei' gave him the impression I was a hail-fellow-well-met kind of girl, but it couldn't be helped.

Even if he said 'Tsukishima is fine' it would've been inevitably okay, but he replied with, "Yeah… that's better than Hotaru, at least."

"Unless you'd prefer what Yamaguchi-san calls you. Something like, 'Tsukki—'"

"Kei is _fine_." He emphasized.

I laughed with mixed thoughts. "Sorry."

"No need to be. It was just a joke, right?" I wasn't sure if he was threatening me or not. Probably not. Or if so, probably unintentionally.

"Yeah, just a joke, Kei-kun." I confirmed.

I heard Hinata mutter to Kageyama, "That was a joke...?"

"That's what she said," Kageyama pointed out.

Before I could continue talking to him, we were interrupted.

"Kotori-san!" Nishinoya shouted, catching everyone's attention for a few seconds before they went back to their own respective conversations.

"Wh-What?" I asked.

"How come you call him by _his first name_?" Was he complaining? Or just questioning?

I looked over to the side. "Well… I figured you wouldn't want me to call you by your first name."

He stared blankly at me for a second. Tsukishima, who was listening to our interrupted conversation, gave the same confused expression Nishinoya did. Then he caught on and had to stifle a laugh.

"What's so funny?!" Nishinoya asked Tsukishima, thinking Tsukishima was making fun of him.

Luckily for me, so I didn't have to explain, because Tsukishima told him clearly.

"It's because your name sounds like a girl's."

* * *

Near the tournament, Shimizu finally showed the team the repaired banner.

Takeda and Shimizu draped the banner over the railings, which already had them head-over-heels for the girl. I tried pointing at my cheeks in a futile attempt to try to get her to smile. She either chose to ignore me or didn't see me.

But it didn't matter. She managed to titillate their hearts with the simple words of a quiet, shy, "G-Good luck."

Every second and third year on the team exploded in tears, and began screaming. For some reason.

Tsukishima looked at me, telepathically asking me, 'what's wrong with them?', causing Yamaguchi to follow his gaze and practically asked the same question.

As though I would know the answer since I was a second year. As a response, I gave a small laugh and looked back to the book on my lap.

My eyes looked over the words for a few seconds, but the letters became nothing but patterns as I lost myself in my train of thought.

I knew why she was getting this kind of treatment. Even though she didn't usually do much, she was pretty.

If I did the exact same thing she did, the best _I_ would get would be a few 'wow!'s and some 'thank you's after. With Shimizu, they were so motivated by her words that even the usually calm and serene Captain Sawamura shouted, "We're winning the first one for sure!"

Everyone agreed (though I think Kageyama and Hinata said it purely because they _actually_ wanted to win). Nishinoya was lifted in the air by Tanaka so that he could raise his hand high. The entire team pumped their fists enthusiastically, with a collective, "Yeah!"

I knew it. Even if I had fixed it with Shimizu, I would have been demoted to the 'helper' anyway. Or they wouldn't be as happy that it was fixed. Or I would be stealing off of her glory.

I knew it.

Just managing to encourage boys with her looks. Did she know she was doing it? Was she manipulating them by taking advantage of her pulchritude?

No, Shimizu wasn't like that, right?

Was I being manipulated, too? Assuming that she couldn't be aware of her spark to their ardor simply because she was pretty?

_Pretty people on the outside aren't always pretty on the inside._

No, no. I was starting to become biased. She was embarrassed to say a simple 'good luck' to the team. She fixed the banner because she was nice. If she was trying to manipulate them, she wouldn't have offered me to help, and just have taken all the glory to herself.

_Unless it was an act. Unless she knew what I'd say—that I'd understood._

No, it wasn't. It was reasonable for her to dislike attention. She couldn't have known what I would have said, because even _I_ was conflicted on what to say. Plus, why would she _like_ it when Tanaka shivered and shouted, "Oooh, that turns me on!" whenever she hit him? 'Manipulative bastard' didn't even fit in Shimizu's dictionary.

She wouldn't act with such subterfuge.

She wouldn't.

_(I might've.)_

* * *

The day to the tournament came fast. Like always, the team had a squirrelly Hinata to deal with, something _I_ didn't want to be involved with.

While everyone walked inside, I heard the rumormongers start up conversations as we passed by. Something about 'fallen crows', based off of Karasuno not being as good as they once were.

The rumors were all things I'd heard before. Trash about Azumane hiring prostitutes or drug dealing or something, all based off of his appearance.

I had an idea where some of them originated, but if anybody had actually talked to Azumane for more than five seconds, they would learn it was very, very wrong.

To prove so, Sawamura and Sugawara pointed to Nishinoya and claimed, "This is what you'd call wild."

They weren't wrong.

They spoke about Kageyama's whole old 'King of the Court' issue he had last year. Kageyama didn't seem as deterred about the rumors as Azumane was, though.

They spoke about Shimizu's unrivaled beauty… but none of them could say anything _to her_, due to Nishinoya and Tanaka circling her like vicious guard dogs ready to pounce on the first prey that came within a three-meter radius.

Then Shimizu hit them on the back of their heads to get them to knock it off. Something they seemed to enjoy. Freaking masochistic idiots.

And lastly, about me.

"That's Aozora Kotori. What's the rich girl doing here?"

"It's just like Shirazu said, dude. She's rich, emotionless, prestigious, and kinda has her own atmosphere."

"You know, she's rich… and even if she's nothing compared to that other manager, she's still cute. If you married her, you'd get the money, right? That's how it works, right?"

"What's she doing here? Oh, I bet she took private volleyball lessons. You know, strict parents are always like, 'you have to be perfect in everything'. That explains her grades."

"Sure, but I bet she's super cocky…"

I did fit the archetype well. Calm, quiet, observant…

Considering I was with a group of strangers I'd likely never see again, I figured I could take a risk.

If I spoke up, they'd expect me to be shy or deadly serious and calm. So I couldn't do that. I'd need to expand a bit more.

I twirled around, pivoting one foot on the marble floor, and grinned at Kageyama and Azumane. "So, are you two ready for today's match?"

This caught both of them off-guard. Azumane seemed to notice the change in demeanor, but Kageyama was too dense.

"Yeah." Kageyama replied bluntly.

"W-Well, I'd like to say I am, but… er… what's with the sudden question…?" Perfect. Azumane's nature couldn't be further from a drug dealer.

I heard the chatter change. I saw the confused expressions.

"Oh, no reason! I was just asking." I said. I looked around and then back to Azumane to show him what I was trying to do. I winked. His eyes widened and returned to normal, then he knitted his eyebrows… and then he smiled, finally understanding what I was trying to do.

Now that I thought about it, Azumane probably _would_ have thought I was bipolar or something now. First time we'd met I was cool and calm and then a nervous wreck, and now a confident manager. The hell?

Still, I needed to fix Kageyama's rumors somehow. I presented a confident personality to him, so I had to stick to it, somehow. "C'mon, Kageyama-kun, aren't you excited?"

"Obviously!" He said, though his expression didn't change much from his serious one. Better, but not good enough to change their minds about the rumors.

"Shouldn't you be smiling? This is your first competition as of High School." Mmhm. This would work.

"Why?"

I underestimated him. A lot. It wasn't Tsukishima who was hard to get along with, because you could get along with him by not getting along with him. What was Kageyama. What. Not only did he defeat my argument, but if I left it like this, it would reinforce the whole 'dictator' thing. God. Did this guy never smile?

I didn't know what to do. "Well, I mean…"

"I think everyone should take it seriously." Kageyama said.

There was nothing wrong with what he said, but other people would have called it cocky or something.

I had to come from where they were coming from. "You don't need to choose, you know. You can have fun _and_ play seriously."

He seemed to contemplate this. Even though I already thought about his next argument and was trying to find a way to rebut, he didn't catch on. "I guess."

That wasn't convincing, but it was something.

* * *

When the guys were going to leave for the change rooms, Sawamura's middle school friend called him out. I took this opportunity to call out Nishinoya before he went in. Luckily, he was in the back with Tanaka, so nobody really noted his absence.

"What's up, Kotori-san?" He asked.

"Nothing. It's just… I… just wanted to wish you good luck… not that you'll need it, but… it might not be as special as Shimizu-senpai's, but…"

He laughed. "Are you kidding? A girl wishing a guy 'good luck' before he goes off into battle gets any guy fired up!" Nishinoya nodded, steam practically coming out of his nose.

"Aha, is that how it works…" I said quietly. I took a breath in. Not too big, not too small. He didn't sound like he had a problem with it when it came up, so I said, "Good luck, Yuu."

His face turned a bit pink. "Yeah!" He shouted enthusiastically. "Definitely! For sure!"

Oddly, he looked unexpectedly flustered. Did I say the wrong thing? Was he embarrassed about his name after all? _Should I have added a suffix?!_ Though the response was predictable, his expression wasn't.

And though I wanted it to end on that cool note, you could always leave it to me to screw things up. I held out my fist. He looked at it, as if there was something in my palm.

"…What?"

"Oh, it's… it's um—god I'm stupid—it's a fist. Obviously. God, sorry. A… bro… fist?" I'd heard it used in that term. "A fist bump!" I corrected.

He laughed, returning my fist bump with one of his own, letting out a gruff, "Yeah!"

I walked up the steps**, but then remembered I'd missed the most important point.

"Win!" I shouted at him, and hurried up the steps.

* * *

**welcome back kiddies... and adulties.**

**explained why she wouldn't call him by his first name.**

**warning: human characters.**

**BUT SORRY GUYS I SWEAR ITS SUMMER NOW I'LL TRY MY BEST IT WILL HAPPEN I WILL GET A CHAPTER OUT FASTER.**

***Hotaru and Kei: Kei means 'firefly', but so does Hotaru. to add to it, they're both 'spelled' using the exact same character in japanese. typically they use a different character for the name, (so technically Hotaru is more common) but usually Hotaru is used for girls and Kei is used for guys, but they're both unisex names, really.**

**(it also says on the wiki that his current concern is: On entering high school, he once again has to put up with various people asking how to read the character for his first name.)**

****it's mentioned a la manga that only one manager can be on the bench (in official games) at a time. just so we're clear.**

**Ara le Yama Raja: there's more where that came from ^^**

**Cara The Witch: d'aww, stop it youu. seriously. i'm actually glad you said that bc i fret about those a lot. (but nah sometimes i just get lazy...)**

** u: nah, noya isn't doing it 'cause of the rumors. and even though she isn't lying, she isn't telling everyone to stop either bc she's quiet. she's a very real character, i'll keep it at that~.**

**faded . ember: warning - chapter length varies according to how much energy i have. aozora's pretty easy to relate to too... but both the good and the bad parts, so if that's okay with you, read on!**

**Anon: thank you~~~~~~. i like Kagehina, but i'm neutral about asanoya because their personalities are really cute and all but asahi looks like he's thirty and nishinoya looks like he's twelve apparently. as for the sports festival, considering the sports festival was _over_ at the time, her only reason of staying on the team was to stay true to her word and, of course, nishinoya. also, your english is fine.**

**Diclonious57****: me too.**

**Nameless****: duuuuude how do you like the update frequency i update like once every two months and chapter lengths vary from 2000 to 10000 so how. 'course, i still appreciate what you're saying! it doesn't matter when you start, i'm just glad you like it!**

**Salome Maranya: so do i, my dear. so do i.**

**kalmaegi: there is more of all of that. the cute things, trolling, facepalming, and getting fired up. maybe at the same time. **

**thanks to y'all 4 errythin.**

**#ssb**


	8. Probably Friends

**Sky Ball**

**VIII. Probably Friends**

* * *

**Thanks to: Bergliot, Yuuki no Yuki, kalmaegi, hokshi, Guest(1), Cloudsomniac, Diclonious57, tartanarmygirl, atanime freak, Salome Maranya, korohoshi, Ourixenstierna, mafumafu, redhead1251, Petrichor in May, HTTYD-PJATO-ROTG-41185, Chick1966, Unraveled Ghoul, knbaddict, ballmagnet, greekpotter15, PandaDerpper, Raspberry Universe, Guest(2), EvaWinters, sakuraddiction, JustImagineXx, PsychoRien, DrummerForTheMasses, Freedom s Fun, and lunatarimoon for reviewing/following/favouriting!**

* * *

**[****Warning: Spoilers about the anime.]**

* * *

When I walked out into the stands, I was amazed. It was a completely different feel than any practice or prefectural game. The Interhigh was _The_ big deal. The ceiling was so… so tall. The stands were congested with people. Many teams had their other members in the stands, cheering them on. I couldn't imagine the pressure the people on the court must've felt.

But I grew bored, even with the match. Their game against Nekoma had been more exciting than that.

Plus, Datekougyou's team's chant was an earworm. "Go, go, let's go, let's go, Dateko!" Times one million. If they had done that all game I would have caused a scene.

I looked down at my notes after the finished first game. Though it was detailed, there wasn't anything about them that particularly stood out. They were an average team.

And they'd lost. That was how easy it was to lose. If you were beat once, that was it. You were out.

I closed my notes and hurried down the steps. When I reached the bottom, I turned right to see the guys finishing up their meeting before lunch. After that, they disbanded and headed in different directions.

"Nishinoya-kun." I called him out. He was with Sawamura and Azumane, talking to the Wing Spiker about something.

"Oh, Kotori-san. Wait, weren't you calling me—"

"Oh, all you guys did a good job on the game so far… ah, you look busy, I'm sorry! Come see me after, okay?" I looked at them as an apology.

I interrupted a clear important moment. I couldn't read the situation at all. Was something wrong with my head? I needed help.

"What're _you_ doing, looking all dejected like that?" A familiar voice asked behind me.

A voice that bordered on fun or obnoxious.

I turned around. "Tsu—Kei-kun. Yamaguchi-kun."

It was annoying how I had to crane my neck towards him. He was with Yamaguchi this time.

"I wasn't dejected, just waiting for someone." I claimed.

"Let me guess: Nishinoya?" He smirked.

This sly jerk. I decided to play the card I used when I first met him. "Yeah, Nishinoya-kun." I said.

No reply. I hadn't reacted by getting flustered or pretended to shoo it off. He couldn't make a comeback off of it unless he purposefully wanted things to get weird.

"Okay. Anyway, I found out some _interesting_ things while passing by, wouldn't you know." Kei claimed.

Yamaguchi looked at him oddly. Even Yamaguchi didn't know what he was talking about. "Uh, Tsukki, what do you…"

"Ah, we could talk about it over a sandwich or something. Maybe you could pay, Aozora? You should be more than able to." Kei said, and right then I knew that he knew.

People thought I was an _aristocrat_ or something, and he thought that I was embarrassed.

Thus, he assumed that because I hid it, and because I was embarrassed by it, it must have been true. Because if it wasn't, I would have said so.

"Are you so broke that you can't even pay for yourself anymore?" I said with a deadpanned expression. He gave one of his half-laughs, which I liked to interpret as, 'Good Job.'

"No, no, I just figured with your family and all, you'd be as generous about paying for us. I didn't take you for the spoiled type." Kei said. Yamaguchi had his eyebrows furrowed, lost in conversation.

"What are you talking about?! The man is supposed to pay for the girl!" An ebullient voice shouted behind Kei. Even before turning, Kei gave a slightly exhausted sigh, because _of course he knew who it was._

"Oh, sorry, I couldn't see you there. You were a bit too short." Kei said, drawing a line in the air to mark his height, and then bending down a bit.

"Tsukishima, you prick! I'll—"

I interrupted Nishinoya's vulgar comeback. "Nah, it's probably because you were facing the other way." I said realistically.

"And what's _your_ excuse for not seeing him? You two are practically the same height." Touché.

"Didn't wanna tell you." I completed. That ended that quarrel quick.

"Hey, you're not gonna get away with calling us short—" Nishinoya began to put up a fist.

"Nishinoya-kun. Everyone needs to eat lunch, remember? We've already wasted a bunch of time. Let's go." It was the fastest way to stop him from picking a fight.

"Leaving so soon?"

"That's the most cliché line you've spouted so far, Kei-kun." I managed to retort back.

I heard Yamaguchi ask Kei, "Hey Tsukki, why do you hate her so much?" He asked.

"Huh? Are you kidding? She's one of the few people on this team that don't seem to get on my nerves." Kei replied. Yamaguchi seemed even more confused by his reply.

"What about you, Tori-san? Why do you hate Tsukishima? I've never heard you talk like that!" Nishinoya exclaimed, leaning forward to get a closer view of my face.

"It's like he said. I don't hate him. This is just how we talk to each other." I said honestly.

"But…" he trailed off. After a few moments, he shrugged and kept going, straightening up so we were walking side by side. "I don't get it."

"I don't expect you to." I said, a trace of sarcasm with Kei lingering.

"Hey!"

"Sorry! I was kidding!"

* * *

Nishinoya and I went into the store. "As a good job for the last match and good luck for the next, I'll buy you a sandwich." I said.

"Thank you!" He said. Suddenly, he realized what I was trying to do. "No, wait! I know you! After you get me it, you're gonna say how I wasn't enough of a man to buy it myself, am I right?"

… Not planned, but he prove his own point. "…No, I wasn't planning on it. With everything you said to Kei-kun, though, now that I think about it, maybe I _should_ leave it to you…"

'The man is supposed to pay for a girl!'

I personally didn't mind, because he was defending me, but I figured I could have a bit of fun.

"K-Kotori-san! I take it back! Yeah! You're a strong, independent woman, who can pay for her own stuff, and…"

"And despite all that you said, you didn't buy me even a Gari-Gari-kun Popsicle when we were in our first year—"

"Argh! You _still_ remember that?! I was short on cash at the time! I got a new volleyball, and it was a _great_ brand..."

I laughed, which surprisingly effectively shut him up. "I'm just kidding. What type do you want? Meatball? BLT? I'm getting you a six-inch. No soda though, since you're getting close to the game."

He huffed. "BLT. Everything on it, except for the mayo."

"Got it! I'm sorry, by the way, I was just joking around."

"I know." He frowned, but it was more of a joking, 'how dare you' rather than anger.

I came back out a few minutes later, two sandwiches in hand.

"Here. This one's yours." I passed him the one with red words on the wrapping.

"Seriously, you're the best!" He shouted, and grabbing his sandwich and peeling off the wrapper. He leaned onto the tree behind him as support.

"I wasn't lying about earlier. I was kidding." I said, unveiling the top of my sandwich.

Nishinoya looked at me, his mouth stuffed. "Mmf… Imo."

"Like, if you were offended at all, I'm really sorry…"

He swallowed. "I _know_ Tori-san. You didn't—"

"And like, I swear there wasn't anything by it. It was just a joke. It wasn't even that funny… to you, at least—not that it was funny to me! I mean…"

He groaned. "God, you're just as much of a wimp as Asahi-san!"

I lowered my head and laughed at the allusion. The one insult he'd made, and I didn't mind at all, for whatever reason. "That's true, isn't it?"

That was not what Azumane would have said.

Nishinoya went back to eating his sandwich. "Well, anyway… our next match is coming up, so I gotta finish this. What time is it?"

"1:05. Don't worry, I'll get us there in time. There's no way I'd let you be late on _my_ account." I said.

I paused. "Hey, Nishinoya-kun."

"What happened to… never mind." He shrugged it off, but I was still curious.

"What happened to what?" I asked.

"I said never mind." He enforced. Ack.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you to say anything more! I should've—"

"Yuu." At first, I thought he was talking to me in English because of the remarkable resemblance to the pronoun. Then I remembered it was his name.

"Yuu…? OH."

I called him that because of the occasion and the recent talk, but in the end, I was more used to 'Nishinoya-kun.' Calling him 'Yuu-kun' sounded like I was calling him my boyfriend. Yuu-chan _really_ made him sound like a girl. Yuu-san mixed formalities with informalities. So I just went with Yuu. But I hadn't stuck to it.

"Alright then… Yuu." I hesitantly called him, as though trying out the name despite it not being my first time. It made me feel odd. "About today's match."

"What?" He asked.

"What was I going to say again—oh, right. In today's match. I don't want to bother you, but Azumane-senpai is clearly worr—"

"RYUU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE BUSH, YOU BASTARD?!" Nishinoya shouted suddenly, causing me to jump a bit. His gaze fixated on a bush far behind me. In-between it's leaves, I could spot a person's face. Tanaka's face.

Nishinoya walked past me and to the bush, yelling something like, "I told you, it wasn't like that!".

I watched the conversation without audio. Tanaka was pretending to cry. Nishinoya yelled at him for something. Tanaka fell on one knee and gestured towards the backdrop… then tightened one hand into a fist. Nishinoya looked like he was about to tear his hair out. Then he clasped both hands and pressed them against the side of his face, as though he were fantasizing. What were they talking about?

When he finished talking to Tanaka, he gave a thumbs-up and ran before Nishinoya could punch him. Which he really looked like he wanted to do. Nishinoya stormed back towards me, red-faced and sullen.

"Wh-What." I managed to utter a single word.

"_It's nothing_." He insisted.

"Was it about Shimizu-senpai?" I asked. I based my assumption off of Tanaka's theatrics of 'manly tears' and fantasizing.

"No—well, yes, kind of. Not really. Something different entirely. Annoying. Not true. At all." He claimed.

What was it? Was it something gross? Something I wouldn't want to know? Something guy-related?

Thinking of those options, I decided to quit it there. "O… kay. Okay."

So we stood there, since there wasn't anything to sit on. We talked about random, easy topics about the game and how I liked the way he could play, even if it was painful. He laughed a bit and just thanked me. A casual, simplistic conversation.

He gobbled down the rest of his sandwich like an eating contest champ. Though I still had a bit, I asked, "Should we go back?"

"You're not done," He pointed out.

"It's just a few more bites. Besides, you can't be late. You're the libero. Their _only_ libero." I reminded.

It was clear he took pride in being the libero, but he didn't see much importance in a few more bites. He agreed. "Alright."

We headed back.

He looked at the notebook folded underneath my armpit. "What do you do, anyway? How'd you get on the team? I can't believe I haven't asked you 'till now."

I sighed. "Data."

He tilted his head. "I thought Kiyoko-san does that…"

I shook my head. "No, she takes Coach Ukai's critique and writes it down so he can come up with an effective strategy. I provide data…" I frowned.

"What?" He asked carefully, noticing the shift in mien.

"But it's not enough."

I had searched up practice matches, looked at CDs of match tapes, and had even looked some up on social media. But I couldn't see what Nishinoya would always see. The world of volleyball, where things seemed more mental than physical. Where it wasn't just about memorizing simple spikes or where the ball went. I could memorize everything, but I still wouldn't see it.

Because I didn't play.

"Can I see?" He asked, hand already resting on the book.

I pulled it out of his grasp. "No… I'm pretty bad at relaying information. That's why Coach Ukai does it. He can understand these notes."

Nishinoya gave his usual hearty laugh. "Yeah, the teach says the same thing to me all the time. He can't understand my notes."

"Do your notes have as many onomatopoeias as you describe to me?" I asked.

"Um… depends. What are onomotompatoes, again?" He asked.

I wasn't sure to laugh or face palm again. "No. Never mind. I've got a pretty good idea. I was in a class with you."

We finally reached the entrance to the gym, where I would part ways here to head up into the stands.

I was going to mention how Datekou knocked them out horribly last year, but decided against it.

"Agh, I should do something. You said yourself, Asahi-san'll be worried as hell, and he might even screw up because of that…"

I stared at him, a mixture of shock, bewilderment, and amusement on my face. He was… nervous? He got nervous, and worried over things, too. Then, why…

Right. I had to help solve his problem. In that case, if I were Azumane, what would calm me down if I was nervous for a match…

I figured it out right away. "Just be your usual self, and everything'll be fine."

"I don't think so. I got pretty pissed at him last year, and—"

I sighed. "Of course not like _that_. You're not usually pissed off, right? You were being honest. Just… well. You're the libero. You'll figure something out. Just be… 'macho' or whatever. That'll work. You're macho, right?"

He puffed out his chest like a proud peacock rather than a crow. "Obviously!"

I rolled my eyes. "Well then. Trust me, that'll get all of them to calm down." I started heading up the stairs.

"Kotori-san, you're kinda… calm, aren't you?" Nishinoya asked.

"I'm not the one playing." I claimed.

"No, but like, usually you're making jazz-hands and insist you aren't sure." He claimed. "But over something like this…"

"Ah… ah, not really!" I said, bringing up my palms to do the so-called 'jazz-hands'.

I thought for a moment.

It was deciding which personality worked best with Azumane. That was probably why I could be so casual on the topic.

I was getting used to it.

"…f only you knew…" I muttered.

"What?"

I'd been heard. "Nothing."

"NOYA-SAN!" A voice called out our attention.

"Ryuu, you ass!" Nishinoya shouted, seemingly continuing their conversation from earlier.

Tanaka waggled his eyebrows. He darted his eyes between me and Nishinoya in some sort of secret conversation.

What did that even mean? Was I involved in their shenanigans somehow?

Nishinoya shoved his face. "Oh my god, will you stop?"

I finally understood what Nishinoya felt every time I rambled on about nothing. I was struck with a small pang of guilt.

"Tanaka-senpai! Nishinoya-senpai! Aozora-senpai!" I heard a cheerful voice ring out. Hinata and Kageyama were coming down the hallway. The voice came from the former, clearly.

"The game's about to start, isn't it?" Kageyama asked. The others nodded.

"Yeah, you guys should probably start heading in." I suggested.

"Let's beat Datekou's ass! YEAHH!" Tanaka shouted. Nishinoya joined in with a 'YEAAAAH!' of equal volume. Hinata shouted a terse, 'Yeah!' filled more with a bubbly feel than the other two. Kageyama barely lifted his fist and muttered, 'Yeah…', but was more taken aback.

And I found myself relating a lot more to Kageyama than the others.

* * *

I was amazed even before the match started.

While they were getting warmed up, Nishinoya pulled off a perfect receive: "RORINGU SANDA—AGAIN!" His naming sense brought more teasing towards him, but managed to ease the tension. Datekou seemed a bit intimidated, themselves.

After that, he turned towards the team and shouted, "All right! There nothing to worry about! All of you, keep your eyes forward! Because you have me guarding your backs."

He had taken my advice to try to boost the team's morale. I wasn't sure if it was because he remembered what I said or not, because saying that kind of thing was just like him.

It immediately enamored everyone on the team, even getting Kageyama to stiffen and blush.

Even getting _me_ to stiffen and blush. I think. My heartbeat increased for a moment. God, he was such an idiot, incredibly dense, _and_ reckless. Even though he worried about it a bit before the match, it was really cool and not even Kei could jeer at him for it.

It seemed some time had elapsed and Nishinoya was putting his thumb down. He'd given me a thumbs up, but then he gave me a strange look because I didn't return it. Eventually the coach told him to get ready again.

So the game started. Everyone was doing their best. My information for Datekou was good. It was accurate, and spot-on, but not good enough. They'd improved since the videos I watched of them playing.

Once I'd gotten enough information I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, so I decided to take a breath of air. That, and the chant of, "GO GO LET'S GO LET'S GO DATEKOU" became a bit too much for me to handle.

I left the stands, but on my way down I passed by a girl in my class. The back of her Nishinoya-approved blazer read 'Karasuno'. Our eyes met for only a second before I passed her. It seemed she didn't recognize me until—

"Aozora-chan?" She called back towards me. I turned around.

Smile. Smile. "Yep! Ahh, right, you were here, Hamasaki-san."

The captain of the girls' team looked at me. I could tell the result of their match by just looking at her—her eyes were a little red. "Huh? Wait, you're from our school, right? Isn't the boys' manager Shimizu Kiyoko?"

"No way, they have two managers? That's not fair!" One of the girls said.

"There's no rule against it," another one claimed.

Hamasaki spoke up again. "Aozora-chan, you play volleyball? I never would've guessed! She should play with us sometime."

Aya, a girl a year above us, tugged on the girls' captain's sleeve. "Yui, if we don't hurry up, the match'll finish."

The captain jolted back to reality. "Right! Let's go! —Ah, nice seeing you here, um, Azura-san!"

How? How did people get my name wrong? It was simple. There was no alternate reading. Did I have a horrible accent or something?

They trotted away, chatting about how my name wasn't Azura. Before they left, Yui shouted, "Aozora-san!" To correct herself, but eventually shuffled into the stands along with everyone else.

I continued my stroll. I looked around—I'd wandered into the small park-like area behind the stadium. It wasn't a bad day. The grass seemed artificial because it lit up like emeralds. Also, water didn't shine _that_ brightly, did it? It was pretty to watch, but seemed so… fake.

At the very least, I had _some_ time before their game ended. Not to mention their after-game meeting. All-around, I estimated I had a good 30-45 minutes. I went with the former just to be safe.

Volleyball… just didn't seem to interest me, huh.

I heard a small voice in the back of my mind tell me, _Can't you be happy for everyone else? Nishinoya-kun. Kei-kun. Can't you be happy for them?_

I dismissed the less-optimistic thought quickly. I couldn't control what I liked and disliked, after all.

So rather than dwelling on it, and considering both options to find what was 'right', I forgot about it.

Choosing to distract myself, I looked at the guide for the matches.

My eyes widened when I saw the match in the 'I' Block.

'Shiratorizawa vs Oginnami High School.'

The I Block was nearby, playing Shiratorizawa versus Oginnami…! Not only that, but I had time right now. Even if I was found, I could've just used the excuse of 'gathering information'.

It would take me about ten minutes to get there and back from where I was. In other words, I'd have ten minutes to go there, ten minutes to watch, and ten minutes to go back. With time to spare, if they went into a third set.

Would he be on the volleyball team?

Stupid question—it was volleyball. Of course he'd be there.

Someone I knew from middle school.

* * *

When I got to the gym, it was on a much bigger scale than the A block.

Even though I thought Datekou had a full stand, Shiratorizawa had twice of that. I couldn't even sit in the stands, like I did for Karasuno. I could only stand way in the back and stare.

I blinked a few times to re-adjust my vision. My jaw almost dropped when I read the score.

Shiratorizawa - 18

Oginnami - 8

I knew that a large difference in score was expected. Especially from Ushijima Wakatoshi. But to this extent … in the first set alone…

Another score by Ushijima. The setter seemed to continue to toss to him, and Ushijima didn't fail.

He landed after another spike. He turned away from the net, but looked up at the stands and somehow found me.

At first I thought he had eagle-eye vision. Then I remembered that he knew me and I was wearing _black_ in a sea of white and maroon.

I treated him the same way as I would've in middle school. I gave him a curt wave, just moving my hand back and forth twice.

He nodded once. That was all he needed to let me know that he'd acknowledged my existence, and then he went back to focus on the game.

I watched for a bit, even dragging into the second set.

Finishing the first set, it was a fifteen point difference, and the second was a huge nineteen points.

"That's ridiculous…" I muttered under my breath. Before I could decide my next plan of action, my phone started to ring.

I looked on the caller ID. It was Nishinoya and OH GOD, almost an hour had passed?!

"Kotori-san! Where are you?" Nishinoya exclaimed.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I lost track of time and… god, I'm sorry…" I sighed into the air.

"We _won!_" Nishinoya yelled. At his exclamation, I could hear Tanaka's "Hell yeah!" In the background. "We won against Datekou!"

I heard a voice in the background call out Nishinoya's name, and it wasn't Tanaka.

"Yeah. Right! Right, where are you right now?! You weren't in the stands… speaking of the stands, guess who I saw?! _Aya-senpai._ In all her beauty…" He trailed off.

… Wait… so his obsessive behaviour _wasn't_ limited to Shimizu?

Nishinoya was scolded for going off topic again. "Yeah, yeah. I got it. Kotori-san, where are you?"

"I'm over at the I Block. The other Gym they're playing at today." I announced.

I could hear one of the senpais ask, "What's she doing there?"

Ukai seemed dismissive in the background. "It's like her job as manager."

This gathered a few "Ooooh!"s from someone. Maybe just Hinata, maybe more.

"Anyway, we were watching the Aoba Johsai match. We're almost finished, so we're leaving soon." Nishinoya claimed.

I bit my lip, already heading out the door. I guess I wouldn't be able to talk to Ushijima again, but it wasn't a big deal. I was _l__ate_.

I rushed over, even jogging at some points so I wouldn't miss the streetlights.

I finally reached the gym, and everyone was waiting outside.

"And… Yamaguchi." Ukai was just finishing roll call as I arrived.

"Aozora-senpai!" Hinata shouted, looking over at me, _obviously_ causing everyone else to look at me. I could already see Kei's smirk. Damn it.

"Good. You're late." Ukai reminded me. I bowed slightly in apology.

"I'm sorry! You can be sure it won't happen again!" I said. I couldn't look self-deprecating in front of all of them, though it did sound a bit nervous.

"Well, it's fine in the end. We're going back to the school now. Does everyone have everything?"

Most people nodded, some adding a 'yeah!'.

That was about the most enthusiastic they got. Everyone looked pooped after two matches.

As they loaded up onto the bus, they immediately slouched in their seats. Halfway through the ride, almost everyone was fast asleep.

I looked out the window. The sky was so photogenic during the time of day. It was orange. The horizon blurred a variety of warm colours, which painted the bottom of the clouds.

I pulled out my iPhone and swiped up to open the quick camera, managing to snap a few pictures.

Then I looked down the aisle, and saw everyone sleeping. A thought crossed my mind.

I muted my iPhone's sound and started walking to the back while taking photos of each of the members. Though I felt a little mischievous, I couldn't pass up this opportunity. The people who were awake probably assumed I was going to the toilet or something. They didn't pay me any mind, aside from a small smirk.

After that, I sat back down.

"Aozora. You said you were at the I Block, right? What did you see?" Ukai asked.

"The Shiratorizawa vs Oginnami match. Shiratorizawa won… by a lot." I told him. Around Ukai, I had to sound responsible. That was what he wanted me for. It wouldn't contradict with how I acted with Takeda-sensei, who expected that from me. Shimizu would believe it was only 'natural' to act more reliable around teachers.

"How much?"

"Twenty-five to six." I claimed.

Ukai's eyes widened, and then he smirked. "Nineteen points. I… well, damn. Anything of note?"

"That I saw…? Well… their main blocker and setter are worrisome, I believe." I remembered hearing someone say that in the stands. "Of course, there's always Ushijima-senpai."

"'-senpai'?" Takeda-sensei remarked.

I had relapsed into my old habit from middle school.

I wanted to avoid telling my middle school tale, so I settled for a half-truth. "Well, he's a year older than me."

For the record, I wanted to hide it _because_ everyone could've made a big deal about it. They could've asked about how to deal with him or other volleyball-related stuff.

I didn't know anything about that—I'd only seen him play a few times. I wouldn't want to let them down.

Eventually, we reached the school and Ukai shouted to wake everyone up. It worked, and they filed out of the bus, barely awake and yawning.

Ukai caught me while everyone went to watch themselves on TV. "Aozora, you watched the Shiratorizawa match, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"What did you see about Ushijima?" The coach asked. Even without telling him my middle school, he was still going to ask me about Ushijima.

"I'm making my notes for Shiratorizawa. I'll give them to you after our next match. I promise. But if I had to say something about Ushijima, his strength was… ridiculous."

I was pretty sure if he served to me, my hand would fall clean off.

"Hm. Alright. Ao—"

"Ukai-san, they're starting the meeting." Takeda sensei said.

"Ah, got it. Aozora, we'll talk about it later." Ukai said, going off to the meeting.

I sighed.

Because I knew if I screwed up, I was arguably the most optional member of the team.

In other words,

Unnecessary.

* * *

After the meeting, Nishinoya walked over to me. Tanaka didn't follow him for once, most likely because _everyone_ on the team was tired. "'Tori-san!"

"Why'd you switch to Tori?" I asked. It was a common nickname given to me by overly-amicable people.

"Well… Tsukishima reminded me: Kotori is a boy's name, too!" Nishinoya said, a cat-like smirk on his face.

I sighed. Tsukishima planned this. Obviously. "First off, it's unisex. Plus, like Yuu, it's more commonly used for girls." His grin flipped to a frown. "But I don't mind… sorry if that came off rude."

I did realize this counted for him, too. "R-Really?! But it isn't cool when a guy has a girl's name…"

"Yuu is unisex. I just didn't know if _you_ were comfortable with it. Anyway, what'd you come here for?"

"Wanna go out with everyone? I think we _might_ be getting meat buns!" He asked, switching to the new topic quickly.

I stopped.

… It would be hard to talk to everyone. I had to constantly switch how I acted depending on who was looking. Not to mention trying not to attract attention so I wouldn't have to switch.

I didn't want to.

Not the entire team, at least. If it was just a few people, who I could easily mix my way of acting in front of, then that was fine, but everyone…

"Tori-san…?"

"I… don't want to." I said out loud. I looked up and met his eyes, which wasn't a common thing for me to do. They were filled with worry, like a dog fretting over someone's wounds. I averted my eyes again.

"Kotori-san, what's wrong…?" He furrowed his eyebrows and reached a hand up as though he was deciding whether to reach out to me or put it back down. He didn't come to a decision, and instead, it remained frozen in spot.

"Hey… instead, we could go get popsicles or something. We could go to my house… I have a lot of video games… or…" I stopped there.

That was way too selfish to ask for.

He _offered_ to get meat buns with everyone, and I dismissed his plans _and_ tried to make my own?!

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I was so freaking stupid.

He'd catch on to how I was feeling bad. Then he might poke his nose where _both_ of us knew he didn't belong. He didn't need to know. Plus, he didn't seem like he liked overly-dramatic, depressing people.

_He'd just be trying to help_, I tried to reason, but then cut my own thought off because I didn't really _care_. It would ruin everything. I would drag myself into a catch-22 situation.

But if I kept acting depressed whenever he mentioned hanging out with the team, it wouldn't be fair. Making Nishinoya choose between me and volleyball?

(What kind of jerk does that?)

"Kotori-san?" Nishinoya called out again.

No. I couldn't act happy and go along with him. I couldn't continue asking him to go somewhere else. Couldn't do both.

"Forget that, actually, what day is it?!" I nearly shouted, putting on a façade of surprise.

"Huh…? Uh." He pulled out his phone and read me the date displayed.

"Ahh, crap! Sorry, Yuu. I changed my mind—I _would_ go, but today my father gets back from work early, so we're having an early dinner! I should be gone right now, actually…!" I furrowed my eyebrows and gave a panicked look.

"Huh?" He was a little startled by my sudden claim. He paused for a second and stared at me. "Are you really okay?"

So he noticed?

It was expected—I did a cruddy job, and the epiphany came too out-of-the-blue.

But I'd have to work with what I started. "Yeah! I'm really sorry! I was just thinking! Again, super sorry I can't come. Next time, for sure!" I exclaimed, without hope for a next time.

I felt more like I was saying sorry for manipulating him in such a way. Sorry for not wanting to come. Sorry for trying to force you away from your volleyball friends.

I didn't know whether I wanted him to press on or leave it at that.

"… Hey, Kotori-san, how about we go to your house, actually?" He offered.

Wha… was he actually… "Huh…? Like I said, I'm having an early dinner, y'see, and…"

"Then why'd you offer it?"

… He wasn't so blockheaded after all. "I just forgot, and…"

Why was I lying to him anymore? I mean, he'd figured it out, and he would rather do what I asked for anyway…

"You said you had video games, right?! Which ones? I hope they're not stupid kids ones. If I see 'Learn to Draw' or 'Hello Kitty World' or anything like that…" Nishinoya said.

"What do you take me for?" I frowned. "They're not slow games, either. I have good games, like Call of Duty and Castle Crashers…"

"Really?! You play those kinds of games?!" He asked.

"What did you expect me to play?"

"I dunno. You look smart. Brain Age, or something?"

"Wha—okay, I have that, but it's a Nintendo Game. Not for the Playsta—" I stopped. He'd gotten me stuck in his flow really fast. And really efficiently.

"Cool! We headin'?" He asked. "Well, just for a lil' bit—I have to rest up for tomorrow. We're gonna beat Aoba Johsai for sure, just watch us."

Maybe my heart was so moved by his actions. Maybe I was just exasperated. Either way, I gave up.

"Yeah, why not."

* * *

Nishinoya looked around my house. My family belonged to the upper-middle class, and the house was a paragon of that. Arched doorways, three floors and a basement, and a balcony.

"Kotori-san, are you moving? The house is really empty." He noted. He waited in the living room as I went to get a bag of chips.

"Nope. Just moved here, actually." I plugged in the controllers. Thank god the PS3 came with two.

Nishinoya's mouth dropped. "Really?! Where'd you live before here?! Tokyo? You talk like someone who lives in Tokyo*-"

"I still lived in Miyagi. It was just that my parents wanted to save more money, so we moved here instead. We just haven't found the time to unpack, I guess." It was the only excuse I could make.

"Wait, YOUR HOUSE WAS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THIS ONE?!" Nishinoya shouted. I nodded. "I can see where all the 'rich and prestigious' things come from now."

"This isn't a rich house. I guess for Miyagi, it _does_ come off that way." I told him.

"Where're your parents?" He asked, changing the subject and posing the question as quickly as his mind thought it.

If I told him the truth, he'd know I was lying for sure, but…

Ahh, who cared.

"Out. Work."

"I thought you said—" He recalled that I'd told him my dad was going to come home early.

"Yeah, he's coming home earlier than usual. But not this early." I just wanted to end the conversation as quickly as possible.

"Oh." He didn't have anything to say while the screen lit up and I went to start an easy FPS. "When does he come back?"

"Oh, not too long. In fact, you should only be here for an hour or so. My dad comes back by then, and you need to rest up." I lied.

"Ack. Got it." He agreed.

Luckily, just as our conversation about that ended, I started the game.

After taking half an hour of playing, I began to laugh. "You… You're so bad at fighting games!**"

"Shut up!" He shouted.

In all honesty, he sucked. I wasn't a god of gaming, but even I could tell he wasn't good.

When it came to games like Wii Party/Play/Sport, he was pretty good. But as for any type of fighting game we played, I was almost certain that if I dropped a brick on my console, I would still have played better than him.

That may have been a bit of an exaggeration.

"Let's take a break for a bit." I flipped from the HDMI channel to AV1 to watch TV and then opened the chip bag to share.

I still giggled a bit while recalling Nishinoya's failure at fighting games. This probably had nothing to do with his skills in real life, but in games…

"So… uh." He said hesitantly. He coughed to try and make the atmosphere a bit calmer. Like if he said the wrong word, he'd cause the situation to become awkward. He even tried not looking at me by looking at his phone and the TV, but it was obvious. "What… what was wrong earlier…?"

I took this seriously at first, and it caused my smile to waver. But then I broke out in another set of laughter.

"What?! Why is that funny?!" His look was a mix between shock, confusion, and worry.

Worry was unfitting on him. I was more used to his smile.

"It's just… if I were Azumane-senpai, you'd ask, 'why were you being so wimpy!' Right?" I imitated the gruff tone in his voice.

"Well, in the end, you _are_ a girl." He explained.

Even if he didn't fawn over me like 'Aya-senpai' or Shimizu-senpai, he recognized me as a girl. No matter how downplayed it was in comparison. So he felt that he couldn't act as brusque in comparison to guys.

Seeing him mind his manners was rare.

"But… seriously. What happened? Don't give me crap like, 'I was just thinking.'" He said, more bluntly now that I'd mentioned it. His shoulders relaxed and his frown turned into a serious one.

Ahh, I couldn't laugh my way out of this one. I couldn't figure out a way to explain it. Not here. Not right now… "I wasn't feeling well."

"Then why'd you invite me here?" His frown increased, now bordering on angry. I could almost see the small elastic bands that held Nishinoya's anger in place breaking.

Shoot. Shoot. I couldn't think of a lie. I…

"What's the point in me telling you if you won't believe what I say unless it's some touchy-feely crap?" I said, trying to turn the tables and put him on the defensive. It was my last choice. My only choice. I didn't try to sound aggressive, but I knew I came off as such.

He was taken aback at my assertiveness, but bounced right back. "Because I _know_ it's something serious. I don't see you look like that everyday. I don't _care_ if you think it's crap, I'm your friend, right?"

What an excuse. Just because he was my 'friend', I was expected to go sobbing to him and tell him my life story? That wasn't how it worked. People lied. People hid things.

But… ah. Ah, I'd pissed him off. I reset my course of action: calm him down.

I gave a sigh. Was being honest the only right way to do things…?

No. Everyone lied, and everyone _hid things_. That was how it went. In that case, I'd get him to agree.

I looked at my controller, which was much easier than looking at Nishinoya. "Listen, I… don't want to talk about it."

That was the truth.

"Why not?" He asked. It seemed I'd raised his temper a smidgen, and now I was paying for it. He wasn't angry, but he wanted to know.

I wasn't sure how that worked. I'd think it over later.

"I just… don't." I gave an exhausted look—or, more accurately, I showed the exhaust I'd been feeling by trying to lie. "It's personal, but trust me. It isn't that serious. I'm not being bullied, neglected, feeling left out, abused, isolated—nothing like that. It's just… I don't want to talk about it. Please."

_Because if I talked about it, it'd make you uncomfortable._

_Because if I talked about it, you wouldn't know what to do anyways._

_Because if I talked about it, it might ruin our friendship._

_Because if we weren't friends, I don't know..._

Nishinoya frowned. He clearly was asking himself, 'what do I do now?'

So I cleared it up. "You don't have to do anything."

Besides. I needed time to recharge alone, anyway. Being with too many people at once was exhausting if it happened too much.

Now that I'd thought about it, I probably could've used that as my excuse. Another half-truth. But it was too late.

"I'm sorry."

"Why're you _apologizing_?" Nishinoya asked. It seemed that saying sorry wasn't a good thing to do.

Of course, on reflex to making him angry, I was about to apologize _again_. Then realized how stupid that was.

I didn't know what to say, so I stayed silent. This lead to giving him time to calm down a bit.

"Actually, uh…" He trailed off and looked back to his phone. "Fuck. Um. Sorry. Never mind. But… y'know, if you ever feel like talking, I'm… uh… here? So. Yeah."

He sounded so freaking awkward for once. It was really unfitting. I expected that even if he went with the same words, he'd say it in a more gallant manner, like he did at the volleyball game.

_"You have me guarding your backs!"_

There wasn't a shred of dishonesty. Each time he pulled something like that off, it amazed me how quickly he could go from foolish to dauntless.

I smiled at him. The smile that wasn't the fake I used by choice. "Thanks."

He looked over at me, and then back at anywhere _but_ me. "No problem! Anytime!" He shouted.

Ah. Another cool moment.

Well, even if I _had_ come to the conclusion of Nishinoya either being charming or asinine, it didn't really matter. Nishinoya was Nishinoya, and that was all there was to it.

* * *

The next day, something unprecedented came. The moment the teacher asked Takeda-sensei for me, I knew things weren't going to go as planned.

"Aozora-san," The teacher said my name carefully, as though treading on a tightrope. It worried me. What if… something happened to my family? I wouldn't know how to react if the teacher said something like, 'your mom got into an accident'…

But luckily, he didn't. "It's about your test."

That calmed me down for about two seconds. My test? What about it? My grades were never really that big of an issue. I allowed myself to focus on volleyball and fleeting thoughts of friendships. Now that it came down to it, I was concerned.

I nodded as a silent gesture for him to go on.

"You see, on your last test, you scored… a zero."

My blood ran cold for a second.

That wasn't possible. I didn't overestimate myself, and I sure wasn't _arrogant_ about it, but I was rather proud of my grades. It made my parents happy, so it made me happy. So why? A zero was impossible.

… Or was I in denial—

"Now, wait. Before you get all worked up," Not like I would, anyway. Not in front of you. "I realized this was completely off for you, but if you wanted to redo it, you'd have to before the end of today. I can't stay after school, but… I'm sure you understand, right, Aozora-san?"

_No, I don't,_ I thought. _Can't you wait another day? You know I didn't get them wrong, and you're probably overlooking something simple. Why am I being penalized for your mistake?_

_I (don't/do) want to go to their game. I want to see them, but… I don't know._

Conclusion: "It can't be helped, I guess…" I said, sheepishly.

It would've been boring to go to their game anyway, right? I didn't know much about volleyball.

"Great. Well, uh, I'll see you now, then. C'mon. I already explained the situation to Takeda-sensei." He said, nodded, and headed towards the school.

I grimaced at the anticlimactic result, where I didn't even get to wish anyone luck.

* * *

Screw the teacher.

He had held me back because of—just as I'd suspected—_his_ mistake. He didn't notice I accidentally shifted all the answers down by the first question.

How the hell did I even _do that_, actually?! Where the hell did I put my final answer? What was I on?!

Now that I was at home, grimacing at myself, I tried to think on a calmer, more logistic side. It was _my_ mistake for moving all the questions down. And I couldn't blame the teacher for having me retake the test. In fact, that was a favor. He could've just given me a zero and that would be that. He let me, and I was the ungrateful girl trying to twist things around into thinking it was his fault.

Right. My fault. I couldn't let it happen again. I wouldn't. No way. Just because things turned out good this time didn't mean it could always turn out okay for me.

Lying on my bed, I rolled over and looked at my phone and checked the time. 6:45 PM. Nishinoya's game would've been done, so I messaged him.

[Aozora Kotori: How'd the game go?]

I debated whether to send an emoji or not while I was at it, but ultimately decided not to, just in case.

[Seen 6:50 PM]

I didn't get a response the entire day _or_ night.

The next day, on my way to school, I was extremely concerned. Different thoughts had plagued my mind during the night, none of them leading to positive outcomes.

What if he was mad at me for not going? It wasn't my decision not to. Nishinoya could understand that, right?

The other option was that he lost, and it was much more reasonable. I double-checked my phone. Still no answer.

I decided to message the person who distanced themselves the most from volleyball. They wouldn't judge me badly or think poorly of me for asking.

[Aozora Kotori: Did you guys lose?]

I decided not to phrase it as, 'you guys lost, didn't you?' So that Kei didn't get a comeback opening like, 'did you expect us to?' or something.

[Tsukishima Kei: How tf did you get my number?]

…

[Aozora Kotori: Not really important. I won't message you a lot. Jw. How did your match go?]

… Okay, that seemed shady. I hoped he wouldn't find me creepy.

[Aozora Kotori: Your phone number is on the inside of your binder in case it gets lost. That, and your number shows up on Yamaguchi's phone when you call him.]

The small speech bubble with ellipses lingered, disappeared, and then returned. A second after, the reply came.

[Tsukishima Kei: Okay, whatever, stalker-san.]

Even if it weirded him out a little, he knew I wasn't suspicious enough to post his phone number on the black market for organ donors or anything.

[Tsukishima Kei: We lost. I'd be careful if I were you. Everyone's pissed or sad. It's a little stupid that some of them are getting so worked up over this tho.]

I decided not to reply. No opinion.

Because on one hand, I understood the entire team's anger. It must have felt like all their hours practicing and pushing their bodies were all for naught.

On the other hand, I understood Tsukishima's point of view (and slightly agreed with it more). It was just a game. Other than _maybe_ Kageyama and Nishinoya, nobody would be able to do it _professionally_.

But regardless, if I gave an opinion, it could be held against me. So I decided not to reply.

And once I reached school, I actually wished for the next break to come so that I could see Nishinoya.

* * *

During break, for once, I had gone over to _his_ classroom. I stood down the hall, staring at the '2-3' sign above his classroom door.

I debated whether to go in or not.

If he was mad at me in addition to losing the game, then this would go very, very badly. There was a risk, but…

No. I needed to stop. The last time I gave too much thought for something like this was when we'd had an argument. The better result was calming down, too.

I pushed the sliding door aside. "Excuse me for interrupting," I announced, smiling lightly, "But can I see Nishinoya-kun?"

Through the doorway, past the people near the door, I could see Nishinoya. He wasn't socializing or anything. It was as though he was thinking about something, but he looked a bit angry. I wasn't sure if I held any bias because I knew that he'd lost the game or because I was used to his smile.

He wasn't happy all the time. I understood that, but I couldn't help but think that I felt much more relaxed around him when he smiled.

"Hey, Nishinoya, Aozora-san wants to see you." Someone said. Immediately, Nishinoya's head flew up on reflex, and his resting frown disappeared.

He didn't smile when he saw me. He looked a bit surprised, but even that turned into… nothing.

A truly indignant expression. The kind he'd get when playing volleyball, except he wasn't focused… or was he…?

And for the first time, I couldn't read him at all.

So when he finally reached me out in the hallway, my words stuck in my throat and I didn't know what to do. Being faced with his desiccated expression, I was honestly kind of…

Scared.

My mind had overflown with so many thoughts that even if I had found the logical conclusion, I didn't recall it.

"So, did you need something?" He asked.

Wh… what did that mean?

And wasn't that an odd way to start? 'Did you need something.' There was no, "Hey, Kotori-san." He didn't even notice the clearly nervous and overthinking expression on my face.

(Though that would have been rude. Even if he did, I'd say "it's nothing". Hypocritical.)

I couldn't stay silent, so I couldn't think things over. I'd been so concerned on reading him that I didn't know exactly what to say.

"… I heard you did good yesterday."

I don't know what possessed me to say that. Maybe it was because he was simple, and would understand that much.

I said the wrong thing, apparently, because he bit his lip and looked away.

It was something, though. It calmed me down, because at least I could do something about it. I could read it.

"It wasn't that good." He replied.

And just then, it became shockingly obvious. Of course he wouldn't think he did good when he lost. If you lost, you wouldn't think, 'It's okay, we have next year'. Not, 'one tournament loss means nothing!'.

In other words, my spur-of-the-moment decision in what to say was inconsiderate and stupid.

A deadly combination.

But… 'it wasn't that good'…?

At first, I wanted to stay silent. Not offering your opinion at all tended to get you in less trouble than speaking your mind.

But after seeing his irritated expression, I couldn't. I didn't want to.

"It was good." I repeated. He looked up, and I saw a little bit of surprise reflected in his eyes before they calmed down yet again.

"Kotori-san…"

"It was really good." I insisted. "You lost. You lost, and you want to blame yourself, right…?" I wasn't sure if I made the right assumption, but it was most probable.

I could feel my expression turn into panic due to the buildup of anxiety and how nervous I was. There was a bit of sweat on my neck. My stomach seemed to twist. My eyes were averted, and my face displayed a mixture of worry and determination. But if I was wrong...

Looking back at him, I could tell I guessed correctly.

"It's not your fault. It's not." I repeated for my sake. The more I stalled, the more I could recollect myself.

"Kotori-san."

"It's not your fault, and it's not anyone else's on the team!" I insisted. "I wasn't at the match, yeah. So I shouldn't be talking, but I know everyone's skill level! You guys aren't 'weak'!"

"Yeah. We could've won. _Could've_." His furrowed eyebrows, clenched fists, and countenance gave everything away. "If I had one more save, we could've kept it going…"

"But you can't. There's only the result. But there'll be more…! And no matter how much you can blame yourself, it's not the end. You can keep getting better, and it'll be fine!" I insisted.

"But saying something stupid like, 'it wasn't _my_ fault we lost' is stupid." He claimed. "It's a team sport."

"Yeah. A team. So why don't you just tell everyone they were crap?" I asked.

"What? God, Kotori-san. You don't get it." He frowned. If I kept it at that, I would've kept him pissed at me for something serious.

"I do. You'd have bad sportsmanship, right? It would make everyone feel bad. It might even affect their playing." I claimed. "Do you think they did bad?"

"No. Of course not."

"Do... do you think you were bad?" I asked. He didn't reply. "You were amazing. And... you'll get better, so don't worry...! Everything will be fine, eventually!

He looked at me, then at the ground, and then… smiled.

It was a mellow smile, with a closed mouth and half-lidded eyes. "Well…" But when he looked up, his teeth showed again. It was weak compared to his usual, but it was still genuine happiness. "I really didn't expect that from you!"

My shoulders tensed in surprise for a moment. I was about to make a bunch of excuses, continue, or make an even bigger fool of myself, but stopped. I was at a loss for words, and barely managed to say, "Yeah."

"You're right, I guess." He agreed. "But that doesn't change the fact that the third years are graduating. They might not play in any more matches."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What are you talking about? There's still the Spring tournament."

"Yeah, but they have exams and then college, right?" Nishinoya said.

That was true. But knowing the team…

"Azumane-senpai won't go." I knew that since he recently got into volleyball again, and it was hard to get out of something you got into. Plus, they lost. Unless Azumane was going to relapse into his post-Datekougyou attitude from last year, he would stay.

"Sawamura-senpai won't go…" I figured that since he was the captain. He was quite passionate about volleyball, and had lost. So he would stay.

"And Sugawara-senpai won't go." I deducted due to how he didn't get to play a game, and Sugawara wasn't the type to give up after not getting to play. So he would stay.

Nishinoya raised an eyebrow at me. "How do you know…?"

I shook my head. "Oh, no, I don't _know_. But it's really not like them to do it? Something like that… I'm not an expert, though! Don't take my word for gospel!"

Nishinoya laughed. "Now that I think about it, maybe not…!"

He was back to his usual self, which was… nice. It even brought a smile to my face.

And all was going well and calm until he extended his arms and wrapped them around my neck, pulling me in for a hug.

My brain short-circuited. Just a little bit.

I became really conscious of the whole thing, as though my brain was unintentionally trying to dedicate everything to memory.

My face was buried in his shoulder, and our ears almost touched. The sleeves of his black blazer that he loved so much were hooked around my neck. Since he pulled me closer to him rather than just hugged me, I had leaned forward a bit. I could clearly see his back and the window behind him.

But most of all, I was painfully aware that I was blushing.

Right. It was because he was so bold. So bold. No other reason.

… That may have been true the first few times, but this could've been different. Was it because I didn't usually receive hugs? With Nishinoya, physical contact was expected. I didn't think that applied to _me_, since he hadn't so far…

My heart was beating really fast, and what had calmed down in me was all riled up again.

I didn't really think. I kind of just slowly processed, which was new for me.

"That was great, Kotori-san. Thanks!" He said.

Double short-circuit. I couldn't think. I could not. I just knew that Jesus _Christ_, my face probably was as red as when Azumane hit it with a volleyball, and my heart was about to crawl its way out of my throat.

He released me. It was a quick hug, but still had me in a wreck.

"… Kotori-san, you're blushing!" Nishinoya asked. His face became a little bit pinker, because he probably didn't think much of it until he'd seen my face.

Since I was temporarily incapacitated, I replied, "Probably."

The corner of Nishinoya's mouth twitched up into a smile before he covered it with the back of his palm and turned away. I was too stuck in shock to guess why.

"Why…? I mean, it's just a hug, right?" He asked.

Again. Too stunned to lie. "Well, I don't get hugs often. Actually, never from a friend. So, uh. It was. Uh. New? Yeah. But I wasn't _not_ expecting it from you. That is to say, I _was_. Because it's a double negative. Well, I was expecting it, but I wasn't because you hadn't until now. Which you would've. So it's kind of like I do and don't? Does that make sense."

"Kotori-san!" He shouted, successfully kick-starting my brain. He probably didn't understand what I'd just said.

"Right. I need to calm down." I said out loud. This was probably my highest level of dorkiness achieved. I took a deep breath in and out.

"Are you okay?" Nishinoya asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I said, now kicking myself mentally because of my ridiculous behavior.

"After practice, do you want to go to the convenience store?" I asked, changing the topic.

"You bet!"

It felt much better now that he was back to being happier. Even if I felt I wasn't comfortable with telling him everything... at least, not yet, he was willing to trust me to help him relax.

And that was fine with me.

* * *

**EXTRA!**

Instead of heading up to the stands right away, I chose to go to the medical unit. My heart rate had been acting up all day. I had come to the natural conclusion that someone here could confirm the thought I had.

I'd overheard that heart issues could be serious, after all.

I walked up to the most striking medic, ambiguous on whether they were a boy or a girl. Not that it mattered, really. The person stood with a straight posture, chest proudly pointing at the matches. Their hair was such a light blonde—almost white. I could almost guarantee they were a foreigner based off of just that, even if I ignored their pale skin and icy blue eyes.

The reason I chose such a striking figure was because I knew that person went to our school. A third year, or so? Yeah. They were a girl. She was a girl. Unless she considered herself a boy, ah, should I have addressed them with boy pronouns? But she wore the female school uniform, so, ah, whatever.

The atmosphere around them reminded me remarkably of Ushijima. Proud, unwavering, and…

Shiratorizawa.

That name connected them the most.

_Swan_***.

"Um, excuse me." What was the swan's name again? Right. "Uh… App—Manner. Manner-senpai?" I asked, almost confusing her with her name amongst the rumormongers: Apple.

Manner looked over, but didn't see me until she lowered her gaze slightly. Her expression didn't change, but her face turned a light shade of pink (which was evident on her pale skin).

"Yes?" Apollonia Manner replied, getting down to business. As expected of the medical crew.

"Uh, I have… occasional heart palpitations." I claimed. I tried to sound technical, but based off of Manner's reaction, I couldn't tell. "I could be wrong, since I'm getting my information from Google."

Manner stared for a second before going onto the next set of questions. "Alright. Have you been drinking a lot of caffeine lately?"

"No," I replied, but then reconsidered. "Well, I do binge eat a lot…"

"That could be a factor, but there are a lot of other options. Have you started exercising recently?" She asked.

"I... sprinted the 400 meter run. About two weeks back. But that was it." I tried sounding as relaxed and calm as possible, as to not leave a bad impression on the tall foreigner.

Manner kept her eyes trained on her clipboard. "Okay. Did you feel anything afterwards?"

"Tired." I answered honestly, before realizing my stupidity. Of _course_ I'd be tired. "I mean, I felt like throwing up for a while."

"That's about normal." Manner muttered, observing her clipboard. "Have you noticed any patterns?"

I looked over. "It usually happens when I'm with a few friends."

Manner's stoic mien remained, but her pencil separated itself from paper. It wasn't tachycardia, as she'd suspected. Nor was it diabetes. Thinking about what possible at that point and what was not, she tried to expand her horizon. Maybe it wasn't directly related to the heart. Maybe it was a side effect. Social anxiety, perhaps? Or...

Regardless, with the information given, there was no way she could draw a conclusion. Nor would she dare give a haphazard guess. With the information given, it could have still been a variety of things.

"I'm not a cardiologist, so I'm afraid I cannot diagnose anything. If you continue feeling this way, I recommend you go to one. I apologize." She concluded. A faint frown crossed her face. It was just a bit of annoyance that she couldn't help me further, but I thought she was mad at me. Even the slightest frown on a normally stoic person meant something.

And it usually meant something bad.

I hadn't heard any delinquent rumors concerning her, and she certainly didn't _look_ like a delinquent.

So there was no reason to be afraid. Really.

"Ah, thanks anyway!" I said. There was no trace of being skeptical of her on my face. I was worried I might've annoyed her if I continued, so I left.

And, regardless of how short-lived the conversation was, although it wasn't anything special, that was the first confrontation I had with Apollonia Evastiina Manner.

* * *

**OMAKE!**

[Tsukishima Kei: Oh yeah. I forgot. Good job on forgetting the time at our volleyball match.]

[Aozora Kotori: Nice one, Sleeping Beauty.]

[Tsukishima Kei: Sleeping Beauty?]

[Aozora Kotori: {One photo inserted}]

(The photo is Tsukishima, asleep on the bus ride after the Datekougyou match, next to Yamaguchi)

[Tsukishima Kei: Are you serious. Delete this.]

[Aozora Kotori: O Kei.]

[Tsukishima Kei: What does that even mean?]

The trash button was never pressed.

* * *

**hahaa i'm gone for a month and then i spout a 10,000+ word chappie hahahahaha**

**ah screw it i'll edit it later.**

**GUYS GUYS I GOTTA TUMBLR. I DO (kinda) ART AND WRITING AND ANSWER THINGS AND REBLOG THINGS. it goes by the same name as my ff account so if you're on tumblr, check it out ;)**

**Apollonia Manner, from 'Of Swans and Apple Trees', made a cameo in the extras. Literally an amazing OC fic courtesy of Bergliot. Not a typical romance OC fic, but guyss if you have time seriously check it out. **

***Miyagi has a special accent/dialect/whatever. It's basically like the western equivalent to... a western accent. like, "how you doin', y'all?"  
(well, it's not that bad. and i'm sorry if i just offended anyone out there with a western accent.)**

**** based off of the nekoma ova where the entire Karasuno gang plays video games. Noya is amazingly bad.**

*****Swan: shiratorizawa literally means swan. it's what apollonia's animal motif is in bergliot's fic.  
(despite this, ushijima's animal motif is an eagle. even though he's from shiratorizawa. and his name LITERALLY means 'cow island' why)**

**REVIEWS:**

**Bergliot: haha. i haven't decided what to do with her mentality yet, and whether it should take a turn for the better or worse. or both.  
yeaaah, i was thinking about having more aozora/kenma talk considering their obvious similarities, but i didn't see where i could exactly fit it in without making it ooc. plus, both of them weren't exactly social at the time.  
as for the whole aozora and tsukishima thing, it definitely is a different relationship? well, you'll be seeing more of that.  
(p.s., sorry if apollonia was written ooc/badly. i hope it wasn't. i tried to stick to the usual.)**

**Left-to-die: do you know that moment when you're talking to your teacher and you wouldn't swear in front of them as opposed to your friends? it's like that. i'm kinda worried it might feel too dark, but it'll take a realistic route. i hope you like this chapter too~! even though it's super long. so sorry for that. kinda. it gets fluffier later on, so i think it evens out.**

**Yuuki no Yuki****: wait for it.**

**kalmaegi: is this what you're looking for, haha. also, kageyama is completely freaking different from how he looks. he looks like an uchiha sasuke. i do not blame her for being mislead.  
it gets fluffier later on.**

**hokshi:**** you have no idea how difficult it actually is considering they're anime characters but surprisingly realistic. so it's easier, but it's also harder. i hope you liked this one!**

**Salome Maranya:**** unfortunately, there hasn't been much interaction between aozora and hinata. but there will be. and i'm pretty sure he's like the cutest thing ever so. it'll be... something new. i like your speculation though!  
lastly, yes i have seen the latest chapters and they have me on the edge of my seat like bro it's hard to spread character skills across every chapter but man when a character gets the spotlight they GET THE SPOTLIGHT.**

**mafumafu: aww, thanks! yeah, aozora and yukioka both look similar with different colouring (but i think yukioka would be cuter than aozora), but aside from the slight name similarities and appearance, they're pretty much foils. yukioka is blunt when she speaks, and prefers not to out of laziness. aozora, on the other hand, is very mindful of her words but is too afraid to speak in case of offending someone. they're an odd pair, bu thanks for reviewing!**

**Raspberry Universe:**** thank youuu. i'll try to keep her in a good, realistic light. i'm totes not for mary sueness, so dw about that.**

**also, thanks to guest(1), diclonious57, tartanarmygirl, korohoshi, ourixenstierna, ballmagnet and guest(2) for reviewing, i just didn't know how to reply OAQ**

**see you around.**

**#SSB**


	9. Genius (Of Brain and Brawn)

**Sky Ball**

**IX. Of Brain and Brawn**

* * *

**Thanks to: Diclonious57, Yuuki no Yuki, Hewia, ITriedToThinkOfAName, kalmaegi, Salome Maranya, Hikari no Hoshi, Bergliot, guest(1), sleepyhead, Carrie, The Nyan Lord, EmeraldStar****642, KikiSenri17, Renrinrin, Llhael Aquila, HanazawaRyuki, Kanzaki Aoi, faded . ember, Yorukifon, olivia . rodriguez . 927, KirikaAndo, sakurayukari, featherheart4248, theekop, virkelighetsflukt, misscaricature, FKING AMASING, Kuroiotaku, 1000 Words To Be Said, CarolinaEirasSa, maicake, CarrieQFD, blackrockx, Xrupa, Izuminka1992, Sentient Stranger, kaira2004, Sara202, Skysword, IXMidnightxMoonXI, .27, katiesgotagun, Lilida97, Rina Dragonfly, JayCeMarch, dersoccer, EllieXDreams, navybluebookworm, RosieHitsugaya, and Sylvr Tyz for reviewing/following/favouritng!**

* * *

Three days.

There were three days Nishinoya visited me during my break from the volleyball club.

The first was ecstatic. He kind of just kept shouting, so I couldn't exactly make out what he was saying. I caught his exclamations about Tokyo, Nekoma, and Training.

Mashing those three strings together, I figured they were going to train in Tokyo and verse Nekoma. Those three words would never fit together otherwise.

The second day, he was in grief. Tanaka had accompanied him that day, and they both sobbed about their grades, for some reason. I remembered the mature mien I had with Tanaka, so I couldn't dismiss the problem, but they were a handful.

And on the third day, Nishinoya came up to me, all fired up about getting better grades _for_ training in Tokyo with Nekoma. His eyes were lit up like excessively fervent fireworks, and fists blazing with an equal ardour.

But the _fourth_ day…

I was going to go out onto the courtyard for some fresh air when I saw Shimizu talking to other first years.

She hadn't really struck me as the social type, either. She was carrying some fliers. Was there an event I didn't know about?

Contemplating the reason she was there, I suddenly stopped when I heard her talk to a first year.

"We're looking for another manager for the Karasuno Boys' Volleyball Team. I was wondering if you were willing to come… even if it's just to see—"

When I heard her say that, a myriad of emotions flew through me in a second.

Confused. Why did they need another manager when they had me? I was another manager.

A bit mad? She was basically—although indirectly—calling me useless.

Disappointed. I was kind of useless.

I was expendable.

I speed-walked away before I could hear the rest.

I didn't even care about going outside. I headed back to my classroom, where I usually was. Where I could eat in peace and think and no one would bother me.

I didn't want to hear any more of what Shimizu said. If I did… no. I needed to sort my thoughts out properly, first.

She must've had a reason for it. She wouldn't intentionally try to hurt my feelings…

But she didn't even tell me.

I was never there, how could she have? But…

But still…

She could've told me…? Went out to find me… the same way she was finding the new manager.

Inside of me grew a bubbling resentment, but conflicted itself with self-deprecating thoughts and attempted optimism.

I was stuck in that loop of contradiction when class had started.

After class was finished, I reached a temporary conclusion. I'd head back to the volleyball club and see if there was anything more I could do.

I thought about what I _could_ do on my way to my next class. My options were limited, since I couldn't even play volleyball…

… Huh.

I could study medicine. Being a doctor was still an open option for me. Then I could help with injuries… but no. I wasn't ready for the responsibility of being relied on in a field I hardly knew about.

Or I could've been a cheering squad, or something. Despite usually staying quiet, it was easy to scream.

No, the boys (_especially_ Nishinoya and Tanaka) already had that covered.

I couldn't do what Shimizu did, because Shimizu _already did it_.

… Ah, what could I do. What could I do. What could I do for—

"Aozora-san."

What could I do for Aozora-san? No, that didn't make sense…

Wait.

I looked up and saw Takeda-sensei standing in front of me. Due to his height, he was almost indiscernible among the crowd of high schoolers.

"Ah, sorry, Takeda-sensei. What is it?" I asked. He looked unexpectedly cautious, which was never a good thing with teachers.

"I'm sure you've heard that… well, the volleyball team is going to Tokyo, right?"

His glasses reflected the sunlight that streamed through the window, so I couldn't see his eyes. He just looked kind of scary.

"Yes… what about it?" I asked, but then froze.

He was going to say I couldn't go on it.

I was useless, and provided little to nothing for the team. Why would I be invited to their training camp? It wasn't a field trip to have fun. It was _training_, and I'd have nothing to train for.

I prepared myself.

"I think we might need your help." Takeda-sensei said. My eyes widened a little. My shoulders relaxed a bit.

"Why?" I asked.

"It's undeniable that academically, you succeed in… nearly every area." He glanced to the window and looked at the soccer field.

Sports. Yup. But since I didn't succeed in that, how could I possibly help the team…?

Then I remembered what Nishinoya had been sobbing about on the second day. His grades.

"You know Nishinoya and Tanaka well, and… well." He gave a curt cough, "Surely you know… what I'm asking by now."

"You want me to teach them." I reasoned.

"I'd do it myself, but there's also a bunch of things I need to do _since_ final exams are coming up. Er… since their training camps are on the line, they'll probably try hard, but…" He stopped there.

I didn't think I was fit for teaching. I withheld my thoughts too much. Like the time with Sawamura.

I was about to let him know that I wasn't a good candidate, but thought something else.

_You're a detriment to the team now. Isn't this the least you can do?_

Since the thought played on what I was concerned about, I made a split second decision.

_I could do that for them._

"I'll do it."

Takeda-sensei's face lit up almost immediately. "Really?! That's great! I think they have a study session this Saturday, so if you'd go to that—or even after that, it'd be great!"

I didn't want to interrupt their study session on Saturday, so I figured I'd help another day. "It's not a problem." I smiled.

"Great! Anyway, we need to go now… but you should also come to the volleyball club more often!" He called while running to teach his next class.

Teaching Nishinoya.

Joy.

* * *

Complications seemed to chase me today.

I accepted to teach Nishinoya and Tanaka, but I couldn't go up to them and say, "Hey, guys! I'm your new teacher now! Haha!"

But beyond that, even before I could think up another plan, there was _her_.

I felt some sort of disappointment right when she stepped in behind Shimizu, with her golden brown eyes scanning the gym. Her blonde hair—a small part tied up by stars in a ponytail—poked from behind Shimizu.

Nishinoya and Tanaka were… hiding.

"What are you two doing?" I asked them.

Both of them moved their eyes to me for a second, stared at me as though asking, 'Can't you tell?' And went back to staring at the new girl. All in unison.

"U-Um! I am Hitoka Yachi! I am of class 1-5!" Yachi nearly shouted.

I pretended to listen to the rest of her introduction, as well as the team's banter, but my mind just wouldn't stay focused.

_This is the girl that's going to replace me._

_They've already seemed to take a liking to her._

_They never talked to _me_ in such a friendly, open manner…_

I bit my lip and turned and even though Nishinoya looked back at me, he didn't ask me anything.

I knew it was wrong to be prejudiced against a new member. She had nothing to do with anything.

While trying to clear my head, I forced myself to get along with the new member.

"Oh? A new manager?" I asked, smiling. The girl looked towards me, startled and surprised.

Nobody sensed anything amiss with my smile, despite my dissonance in truth. It felt unpleasant. I felt like a painting. I had no real opinion, just like a blank canvas, but there was too much glitter and too much paint smeared on to remember that.

"Y-Y-Yes…!" She managed to squeal out.

"It's nice to meet you, Yachi-san. I'm in Class 2-5. Aozora Koto…" I faltered. She had given another panicked expression in response to my last name alone. "…ri."

"Erm…! I-It's my honor…?!" She tried bowing to be polite, but ended up bowing a bit too low than what I was used to. I supposed that was a result of the rumors. I couldn't tell if she fully knew what to do in this situation.

Either way, everyone's attention was on me now, so I had to find a way to accommodate them.

I had to act a bit nervous because Azumane and Sawamura were there. I had to act confident and kind because Sugawara and Kageyama were there. I had to act mature because Tanaka and Hinata were there. I had to act open-minded because Shimizu, Yamaguchi and Ennoshita were there. Nishinoya and Tsukishima didn't apply.

Okay. I could do this.

"H-Huh…? Oh, there's no need for anything like that! It's just a pleasure to meet you." I gave a smile.

"Oh…! I'm sorry! I'm Yachi Hitoka…!" She exclaimed yet again. Then her face fell when she realized that she had _already_ introduced herself.

"No need to be sorry!" I replied and grinned a bit. I'd said it a bit too quickly, but it was easily mistook for natural. Her shoulders became less tense. She smiled back at me.

Just then, I was able to tell how I had to act in front of Yachi.

She looked at me. With my perpetually-disheveled hair, the rumors behind me, the way I lied through my smiling teet, I was able to tell what she thought of me. I was able to tell what lie she thought I was, and almost laughed in result.

She thought I was a confident, open-minded, and reliable person.

Ha.

What a _joke_.

The attention was quickly directed away from when Hinata interrupted. They all re-focused on Yachi, and my smile faded.

Not because I was disappointed she got all the attention. I was _glad_ that I didn't have to think too much for every little action. I didn't have to smile anymore, so—

"Tori-san!"

I almost jumped. I looked towards Nishinoya and Tanaka.

"That was super smooth! You totally had that intro down! Nice!" Nishinoya complimented.

Ah. He knew it was an act…

"What do you mean? Isn't that just like her? She's totally got that kind of 'class-prez' vibe around her, right?"

… And Tanaka didn't. I couldn't let Nishinoya correct Tanaka's misconception, but…

"Yeah! I guess she could!" Nishinoya grinned.

I didn't know what to think, so I decided not to.

But with these two, now would be a perfect time to suggest helping them with their studying…

"Alright, alright. That's enough. Let's get back to practice." Ukai interrupted, and Nishinoya and Tanaka turned tail and follow Ukai's commands.

Never mind about the studying thing.

* * *

Yachi walked up to me a few practices later with Shimizu and gave a tentative, "Um, excuse me, Aozora-senpai…?"

Shimizu was with her. Right. I had to act accordingly. A bit dorkier.

"Senpai…? Ah, right!" I pretended I forgot. I gave a sheepish laugh. "Yeah? What's up?"

This calmed Yachi down a bit. "Erm… I was just wondering, what do _you_ do here?"

Nothing.

Something.

"Oh, I record data." I claimed. I didn't mention how lazy I'd gotten about it, though.

"Data?" Both of their heads were askew. Even Shimizu had never bothered to ask what I did.

"Mm-hm. I… uh… take note of other people's strengths and weaknesses, but I also take notes about the team." I explained.

"Ohhh!" Yachi looked at my notes and sounded almost in awe. "I get it! That sounds important!"

I smiled at her, but thought, _No. It's not. I do it because nobody else will._

"… You look really good at it." Shimizu complimented, although awkwardly.

Looking isn't the same thing as being. Her compliments might've been able to motivate the guys, but it wouldn't work on me. "Really? Thanks!"

Yachi and Shimizu continued to chatter while I gave out half-answers, eyes lingering on the court. They were all working. Meanwhile, I had to converse about their loss at the Interhigh, how dedicated Karasuno was, and about some 'Small Giant' who didn't really matter.

It took a few minutes before I chimed into the conversation and eventually began to get to know them. Even Shimizu, who'd never even tried to get to know me before.

We eventually got onto the topic of how the boys had to get better grades, and that's when it went downhill.

"Well, the problem here are those four." Shimizu said, and glanced over at Nishinoya, Tanaka, Hinata and Kageyama.

"Kageyama looks like the silent and smart type, too…" I added.

Yachi laughed at my comment. "Have you helped them at all, Aozora-senpai? I mean, especially you—"

"Ah, nope! I haven't gotten the chance to!" I interrupted, but a bit too fast to ease suspicion.

"What do you mean, 'especially her'?" Shimizu asked out of genuine curiosity.

I couldn't speak up without adding more suspicion. I was silent as Yachi revealed, both anxious and perplexed, "U-Um, well, I could be wrong, but isn't Aozora-senpai one of the top five academic students in Miyagi?"

Fuck.

It was the one rumor that wasn't a lie.

It had already been quiet in the gym since the boys were cleaning up. Nishinoya and Tanaka were staring at Shimizu and listening to our conversation. That didn't help.

At the revelation, Nishinoya's and Tanaka's jaws dropped in unison.

I couldn't lie about it either, because they could look at the school rankings anyway and discern the lie.

Even Shimizu's glasses slipped a bit down her nose as her eyebrows raised in surprise. Some of the others knew about it already, like Sawamura, and others didn't hear. But with a lot of the attention on me, I heard Tanaka and Nishinoya simultaneously yell, "A-A GENIUS!"

Whoever wasn't paying attention was now, and soon enough all the attention was focused on me.

Actually, how did Nishinoya and Tanaka _not_ know?! They were _both_ in a class with me for a year straight!

Actually, that wasn't important. The current situation was important.

Nishinoya and Tanaka immediately ran over to the benches we were sitting on. For the _first time, ignoring Shimizu_—and shouted, "TEACH US! PLEASE!"

There was no act I could use in this situation. I knew Yachi preferred the confident type. Tanaka preferred the mature type. A bunch of others were watching, but there was no way I could react to this development calmly.

I covered up my face with my notebook and looked over to the side. "Um… uh." I muttered.

Nishinoya caught onto my awkwardness first and piped down. His sudden change in volume caused Tanaka to tune down and stare at him.

"Um… yeah…?" I replied. It was just quiet enough to hear me.

This caused their eyes to _glitter _as they grinned and high fived each other.

"Aozora-senpai…! Teach me! Teach me too…! I want you as my teacher!" Hinata asked, holding out shaky arms toward me as though he was a poor man and I was the messiah.

I looked over at Yachi and Shimizu and smiled. I tried to pretend it was fine, but had a feeling my bluff could've been easily called out.

"I-I'm sorry…!" Yachi squeaked, once she noticed my discomfort. I waved away her concern.

"Hinata, I'm pretty sure Aozora already has her hands full with those two." Sawamura said, putting a hand on my shoulder. Hinata whined a bit, but gave up.

"So, when're we meeting up?" Tanaka asked. "And where—my place again?"

Nishinoya nodded. "Tomorrow! Uh… if it's fine with Tori-san…" He glanced at me, before Tanaka elbow-nudged him.

"What a gentleman, isn't he, Aozora-san?" Tanaka asked. There was a tone in his voice that implied something else.

"Erm… yes…?" To the first question. Tanaka turned back to Nishinoya and waggled his eyebrows.

Oh.

OH.

So that was how it was.

Tomorrow would be great, then.

* * *

The boys were unexpectedly first in getting to the rendezvous point after school. Well, they _were_ better than me when it came to leaving class first.

We headed over to Tanaka's immediately after school.

I took a seat on the cotton pillow and rested my bag on the table. The lighting casted a warm glow in Tanaka's room, and the white ceiling fan rotated at its slowest speed. I took out the textbook and lay it on the table with a satisfying thump. Nishinoya and Tanaka did the same thing.

"Alright, let's get down to business!" Tanaka shouted with a triumphant look upon his face. He looked like he had already scored a 100 on the test.

Nishinoya mirrored him. "We've totally got this test down!"

Oh. I recognized this. It was the first of the five stages of grief: denial.

I knew an efficient way to teach them, but it'd definitely be considered rude and impolite. Still, I couldn't get a word between their banter, much less teach them.

"I'll offer you two a choice." I said, but my voice was drowned out by them. "I can help you, or we can have a good time."

The two had amazingly heard me underneath their shouts, and Tanaka spoke first. "Well, obviously we'd want the help, right?"

I gave a dissonant smile. "Well, I'd like you to consider it carefully. Having fun seems to be a priority to you, and it's not a bad thing. But if you want me to help you… and I mean, _really_ help you, to the best of my ability, you might have a bad time."

Nishinoya and Tanaka gulped. They looked at each other wearily.

"But whether you go to Tokyo or not… it's not a big deal to me." I claimed. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth, either.

This managed to send the message home. Their expressions became more serious, and they both nodded. "What page number?" Tanaka asked, pulling out his math textbook.

… They went with the first option.

I ignored my thoughts that nagged me about being 'polite' and 'considering their feelings'. My fake smile disappeared. My grey eyes, which usually looked like clouds that barely managed to hide the sun, had turned into a storm.

"Page number… fourty-seven. I'll also be teaching these to you myself. I was in a class with you, so I know your general abilities." I stated.

* * *

Looking back, I don't remember much of what I did.

I remember that Tanaka was more determined when he was told what was wrong. Nishinoya was too, but he responded better to encouragement.

The encouragement was given with a smile that didn't reach my eyes. Fake, but it appeared realistic.

Tanaka had a habit of throwing his arms up in the air and lying down when he didn't understand something. Nishinoya used comedy, as shown when he answered 'rolling thunder' for a math question. Tanaka praised him for it; I told him to get back to work.

Though it was a bit funny…

We finished three subjects before we were interrupted by a tall woman with blond hair.

"Man, it's pouring buckets out there." She said, draping a towel over her hair and shoulders.

"Nee-san!" Nishinoya exclaimed. The woman gave a familiar grin—wait, Nee-san?! It was Tanaka's house, but that woman was his sister?!

"Oh, Ryuu. You brought Yuu! Who's this one?" She asked, looking at me.

"This is Aozora-san! She's helping us study." Tanaka claimed. He seemed to enjoy her company, but also seemed as though he were shooing her off. Like a friendly sibling rivalry. The question was, who was the brother? Tanaka or Nishinoya?

"Girlfriend?" The woman asked simply. Tanaka shook his head vigorously.

"No way!"

She put her hands up. "Just a question."

She leaned over Tanaka and looked at his homework sheet. She raised her eyebrows in mock surprise. "Wow. Can't believe my little brother's actually doing his work."

Okay. So _she_ was Tanaka's older sister. Then, with Nishinoya…

"Whoops, you look confused. Nice to meet'cha. I'm Tanaka Saeko. If you want, you can call me 'Nee-san'."

Oh. So _that's_ why Nishinoya called her his sister, but she was definitely Tanaka Saeko.

I was only staring at her, but I remembered I had to be polite when meeting new people.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Aozora Kotori. Erm, 'Nee-san' sounds a bit too informal, and I call Tanaka-kun with his surname." I stated in a passive-aggressive manner, hoping she would do something about it.

She did. "Alright! Nah, Saeko's fine, no worries."

Saeko-san, then.

She leaned over me and kept scanning me. I was able to watch her through my peripheral.

I had a feeling she was judging me. Blonde hair. Too much glitter, too much makeup. Too much I didn't have.

"Well, _I'm_ going to go watch T.V.," Saeko claimed, giving a wink before she left. "Call me if you need anything."

Tanaka rolled his eyes. "Ignore her." He insisted, "What's the answer to question 4?"

I leaned over the table and looked at his question. I gave hints and then explained it in a way I'd understand from his perspective. He seemed satisfied.

I waited a little longer. I already finished my homework and copied my study notes, so I was strictly helping them study by then. I looked outside, and the sky looked darker than it should have been.

I glanced at the red numbers displayed on Tanaka's bedside clock; it was only 5:30pm, but it appeared as though it were 7:00pm outside. The streetlights reflected from the asphalt and puddles on the ground.

"Hey, Tori-san." Nishinoya said, breaking the silence. He lifted his pencil and gaze from his paper. He was nearly done, but he interrupted my compliment with, "Why didn't you tell me you were this smart?"

Tanaka was looking at me curiously, too. I stared at him for a moment. His brown eyes were innocent. He had asked a simple question. Yet…

"It never came up." I made up an excuse.

Nishinoya raised a miffed eyebrow. "Don't you think that's a little important? I complained about my grades a bunch during _last year's _exams."

Some people were praised for being academically smart.

But some weren't.

I never really made a big deal about it, though. I wasn't complacent. There were people who used to tell their friends about their good grades. They said they were proud of themselves. They said they had worked hard.

Despite that, everyone still despised them.

Cocky. Smartass. Show-off. 'It's not our fault he has a fucking Albert-Einstein-IQ.'

I wasn't the victim of it because I had kept quiet.

Keeping quiet was the best. If I had told Nishinoya, he would've…

No.

He wouldn't have done the same thing. He would have genuinely thought it was cool, just like he did when it was revealed to him.

"I…" I couldn't tell him that, though. Not yet. Not just yet. "I thought you two knew."

"How were we supposed to know?" Tanaka chimed in, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Uh. We were in a class together. And you saw the school rankings, right?" I asked.

Nishinoya and Tanaka sent a look at each other for a second. "Well, you're kind of right." Nishinoya claimed, "We never really bothered to check who got first or whatever."

Tanaka scoffed. "Are you kidding? I don't check that thing at _all_."

"What about the rumors? You must have heard those, right?" I asked.

"I think I did? But I didn't really believe it. I mean, all the smarter kids just filter into smart high schools like Shiratorizawa." Tanaka claimed.

"I don't care about rumors." Nishinoya shrugged. "I'm not sayin' Ryuu does! I'm just saying that I don't bother listening. But actually, why _did_ you come to Karasuno? You live near better schools, right?"

I answered with one sentence: "I didn't want to go to Shiratorizawa."

"Why not?" Tanaka asked.

I smiled a bit while reminiscing. "An upperclassman from my middle school went there. But before that, he kept telling me the pros of going to Shiratorizawa. He didn't really care if I went or not, but he kept advising me to. Saying how I'd finally get a challenge and stuff like that." I explained. "I think that's why I _didn't_ want to go, though."

"This upperclassman must've been a real asshole if he made you not wanna go. You still should've, though. I mean, you need to have good grades just to get _in_." Nishinoya claimed.

I almost slammed my head on the table before remembering I had to be mature for Tanaka. He didn't listen to anything I had said, had he.

I waved off the misunderstanding with a laugh. "No, no. He was a good senpai. I… didn't want a _challenge_."

I knew admitting it would have consequences to my reputation, but I couldn't think of a suitable lie.

"Why not?!" Nishinoya shouted loudly enough to make me glance at the door to make sure Saeko didn't come at his yells.

"Nishinoya-kun. It might come as a surprise, but…" I looked directly at Nishinoya. His eyes widened once he saw the spark in my eyes. It was confident. Confrontational. Challenging. Sharp. Threatening.

Not like me.

"…I _like _being the best at what I do."

I had hid my grades, but pointed out my pride.

Contradictory. A dumb move. I wasn't lying.

Didn't make it any less true.

It uncharacteristically took me a few minutes to notice their discomfort. I smiled nervously and laughed to try and break the atmosphere. "Just kidding!"

Silence echoed.

The next time they talked to me, they asked for help on a history question. Pretended I hadn't done anything.

It looked like I screwed up.

* * *

When it was time to go, Nishinoya frowned.

"Are you seriously _walking_? It's pitch black outside." Nishinoya asked.

Since it was cloudy, the sky looked darker than it normally would have been at the time.

"I… could walk you home? Or at least to the train station." Nishinoya suggested. Tanaka shoved Nishinoya with his leg under the table while smiling.

"It's raining." I replied. I didn't really want to take him away from Tanaka, but Tanaka seemed willing to have Nishinoya go.

"Exactly." Tanaka claimed. "It's only natural that a guy would do this!"

I noticed that their bravado of 'manliness' just covered what they thought was 'cool' and wanted to do.

"It's still raining. No matter how manly you are, there's no point in _both of us_ getting wet." I insisted.

"Noya-san can borrow my umbrella," Tanaka claimed.

I was about to protest by asking why _I_ couldn't borrow his umbrella, but felt it would be rude… somehow.

Nishinoya packed up his things and stood up. We started heading towards the door. "I'll be heading back here right after!"

"Oh? Yuu, you're leaving so soon?" Saeko asked, seated in the living room.

Her arm was laid out on the same armrest her back leaned on. Her body draped across the couch like Cleopatra, and her crossed legs rested on the opposing armrest. She looked back at us.

"Naw, I'm coming back! Just walking Tori-san to the train station!" Nishinoya replied.

Saeko raised an eyebrow, and then chuckled. "Alrighty then."

"Thank you very much for having me." I bowed my head slightly, and then Nishinoya and I walked out the door.

* * *

The walk home was quiet for the first few minutes.

Other than the sound of cars running over puddles occasionally and the chitchat of passerbys once in a while, it was relatively silent.

"You're awfully meek today. Is something up?" I hoped I hadn't scared him with my moment of seriousness. I was only 150cm with mistreated black hair. How scary could I get.

"Erm, yeah. Just thinking about something _stupid_ that Ryuu said." Nishinoya sighed.

"What?"

"Well, sometimes he jokes around and says I'm unfaithful to Kiyoko-senpai and Aya-senpai." He _clearly already was_ if he was saying the names of _two girls_. "But the problem is that he thinks it's over one of my friends."

"Unfaithful?"

"Yeah. He thinks I like h… them. Which I don't! My undying love goes out to Kiyoko-senpai!" He said. I noticed he clarified it as 'them'. Why wasn't he keeping gender relevant? Maybe it's a secret because it was a guy?

There was a long pause, and then he continued, "Anyway, that'd be weird, right? And awkward! I mean… this person is just a really good friend!" He shouted, balling his free hand up into a fist. "I like Ryuu, right? But I'd never do anything like _date_ him or _kiss_ him!" He shuddered at the thought.

I raised an eyebrow. "Do you feel like dating this person people accuse you of liking?"

"No! Well… no!" He hesitated, which lead me to speculate that he _did_ like this person he was talking about.

Who _was_ he talking about? He wasn't good enough friends with the new manager, Yachi… it wasn't Tanaka or Shimizu since he'd said their names already…

Was it Azumane?

"There's no way! They're really awkward, and they apologize a bunch, and they have, like, zero confidence when they're pretty good! Not to mention they care too much about what other people think, and they don't bother to tell me anything…" Nishinoya trailed off.

… While I thought that sounded like a pretty accurate description of me, I wasn't 'attractive'. Or, at least not as attractive as many, _many_ other girls in the school. I didn't know his taste in guys, but I definitely didn't match his taste in girls. If I thought about it, I knew I'd waste hours thinking about it.

I didn't even match his ideal _personality_ for a girl. I was cynical, misleading, manipulative, secretive, and a whole myriad of things that weren't perfect.

There was one other person who fit Nishinoya's description, though. Azumane.

Well. Good for him, then?

Oh well.

It was best if I just stopped thinking about it altogether.

I turned towards him, combed my bangs upwards with my fingers and laughed at his predicament. They cleared my face for a second before falling again. Spitting rain fell onto my face. "Good luck with them, then."

I looked at Nishinoya. His face brightened through the headlights of a passing vehicle. His proud, humorous smile had disappeared. I felt like his brown eyes were only looking at me. I saw his hand tighten around the umbrella before the passing car left and his face turned dim again. I couldn't properly see his expression anymore.

There was a silence, but while we were crossing the street, I thought I heard him mutter.

"But sometimes I think he might be right."

* * *

On the day the tests came back, I stared at the results board*.

2\. Aozora Kotori (498/500)

I wasn't first. I hadn't expected the person in first place to score a perfect, but that wasn't an excuse.

I wondered if it was because I was teaching Nishinoya.

Then I remembered that teaching was an effective studying strategy, and couldn't use that as an excuse.

Hm.

So I…

Well, it wasn't like it was a bad score. It was really good, actually… so I shouldn't have worried.

Yeah. No big deal.

It was just so, so…

Disappointing.

"Tori-san!"

"Aozora!"

When I turned, I saw Nishinoya and Tanaka sprinting in my direction. When they were within range, Nishinoya bent his knees down slightly for a second—a signal I had noticed from every time he attempted to hug Shimizu. I flinched for a second, but Nishinoya abruptly stopped and clasped his hands together.

"Tori-san! We passed!" Nishinoya exclaimed. Tanaka cheered, too. I searched for their names, and sure enough, they'd both passed. With decent marks, too.

"We gotta go thank Ennoshita, too!" Tanaka shouted.

Nishinoya nodded. "Yeah, for sure!" He looked back at me and seemed to calm down a bit. "But first…"

His eyes scanned the top of the board. The one with my name on it. "Second?! Tori-san, that's amazing!"

Tanaka looked up and back at me with a "Whoaaaaaah" to accompany Nishinoya.

I opened my mouth to object; to complacently say, "But I'm not first."

But I closed it.

That would've been stupid. Even though I understood that our goals were different, it didn't mean that he would. Plus, I'd encouraged him the other day about a similar situation. Even if I didn't believe me, he did. I had to keep up the lie. Besides, I already knew what the _right _thing to say was.

"Thank you." I sent a superficial smile at them.

Tanaka smiled. Nishinoya stared at me. He wasn't smiling, wasn't frowning. He imitated the look he had when he watched a volleyball come at him, and had to decide what to do to receive it.

He was thinking.

Analyzing me.

My hands tightened around my schoolbag. The velvet strap barely shielded my palm from nail marks.

Then Tanaka bumped into Nishinoya, and Nishinoya's smile returned.

"Noooya-san, are you going to stare at Aozora forever?" Ryuu asked with a devious smirk adorning his face. My face slightly flushed.

"Huh? No, I spaced out—wait, _RYUU!_" Nishinoya growled.

Nishinoya grabbed at Tanaka. Before I could be involved, I walked away. I was sure Nishinoya wouldn't get into any trouble—he wouldn't risk getting suspended from school _again_, especially after working his ass off to get his grades up.

_'I spaced out'._ Nishinoya had said. In other words, I'd overestimated him when I thought he was judging me.

A small voice in the back of my head whispered, _Does he__ know _anything_ about you?_

And I thought back to myself, _If not, t__hat's a good thing._

* * *

**OMAKE!**

[Tanaka Ryuunosuke: aozora]

[Aozora Kotori: Why are you texting me when you're literally two feet away?]

[Tanaka Ryuunosuke: my phones here.]

[Aozora Kotori: Have you been looking up the math questions?]

[Tanaka Ryuunosuke: ...]

* * *

**tumblr name: smallshadowybirds. ask me anything~. i am ready.**

**absence. school. you guys know the drill. intense hs stuff. ap program is struggle. that is my only excuse.**

**school's back so D: but so is haikyuu season 2 so ::::DDDD**

**but guys i am back with more fluff and more internal conflict and stuff so be HAPPY! this one isn't as ludicrously long but i put some good stuff in there, and i cannot wait to hear speculation as the _plot thickens_.**

**i love this anime agshasdjlkfvnhsjlkdavncxvcxvdf**

***in japan, they post a ranking amongst kids in your school, in your year. i don't disagree with it, but i can't agree with it.**

**REVIEWS**

**Diclonious57: Aozora - "can we rlly tho"**

**Yuuki no Yuki: ehehe. i literally can't wait to see your reaction to this chapter. tsukishima doesn't really show up in this one but what can i do ****¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ you'll like the next one fo sho.  
****nOT CAUGHT UP ANYMORE. IT'S AN ENDLESS CYCLE  
****SEASON TWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  
****won't mention who'll be in the next chapter but agfjdghljfakenmafdankl**

**kalmaegi: you will see a lot more babbling and flustered. and everyone is aware of how much of a dork she is (even said person).**

**Salome Maranya: GET READY FOR TRAINING CAMP BECAUSE IT IS HERE AND BETTER THAN EVER AND OMG MY TYPING HANDS ARE READY FOR THIS ONE I AM SO PUMPED FOR THIS.  
****i won't spoil anything but you might've noticed nishinoya can STILL push her out of the dumps without knowing she's in the dumps  
****oh my god i didn't think of aozora falling but that's actually not unlikely  
****TRYING TO STAY INSPIRED BUT HIGH SCHOOL IS NOT LIKE AN ANIME.**

**Bergliot: oh my god aozora's so smart but so, so dumb. she even considers it and doesn't understand.  
****and yES THERE IS BACKSTORY. STAY TUNED.  
****it couldn't have been anyone BUT ushiwaka.  
****well, it could've, but whatever.  
i'm so glad you liked appolonia! i was so worried tbh like 'would she do this' or 'would she rather do _ or _?' i love their interactions tho i wanna write more!  
i added how she'd message tanaka j4u~ so sorry i've been mia for the past month.**

**sleepyhead: okay aozora can be really resourceful but do not learn everything from her because she is still learning and there are mistakes she is making so be v v careful.  
i kinda write when i feel like it but it takes about a month per chapter. this one was special because it took two, but that's only because of high school.**

**Carrie: i'm so glad you like it! i'd wait 4-5 weeks and then check it once every week after that. i hope you keep liking it!  
**

**faded . ember: EVERYTHING YOU MENTIONED WILL BE IN THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS SO STAY TUNED BUDDY**

**sakurayukari: pshhht if puns were a test i'd... ACE it. geddit geddit ok sorry for ruining this story**

**FKING AMASING: your name has me laughing so hard. also, i can read that perfectly fine, so don't worry!**

**smell ya guys.**

**#SSB**


	10. Epiphany

**Sky Ball**

**X. Epiphany**

* * *

Although I was glad I got to accompany the team on their excursion, I also felt a tinge of guilt. I didn't deserve to go, but got to anyway.

There I was. Sweating, even though it wasn't that hot, and tired just from walking. The sun's rays were warm, and wearing a jacket—albeit a light one—was a very bad idea. I was so tired that my shoes scraped against the cement with every second step I took.

I had gotten off the bus and silently trailed the team, feeling more like an assassin than a manager. Nishinoya and Tanaka kept shouting and asking which steel towers were Tokyo Skytree. Nekoma, the team we were walking with, laughed. We must've looked stupid to them.

"Hey, what was your name, again?" Kuroo asked suddenly. He had caught me off guard, since I'd resigned myself to walking alone and in peace.

"Aozora Kotori." I replied. He nodded, and muttered the name to himself.

"Aozora, Aozora. I've heard that name before." Kuroo claimed.

I understood his implication, but mislead him. "Are you sure it wasn't just someone talking about the sky*?" My tone was a bit too deadpanned to be 'friendly', but I was too tired to function properly.

Kuroo laughed, smirking right after. "Yup. You _definitely_ remind me of him."

"Who?" I asked.

"Oh, no one. Just a teammate. Nekoma's setter. I should introduce you two later, but I dunno if he'd want to."

"You mean… Kenma. Kenma Kozume?" I thought, from the time I'd met him.

"Yeah. You know him?" Kuroo asked, surprised to see I remembered.

"You introduced yourselves to me. You're… Kuroo, right…? Tetsuya… no, Tetsurou?" I asked for verification. This caused his smirk to spread wider, which worried me.

"Didn't we introduce ourselves to you _once_? A while ago, too…" He paused. Then a lightbulb popped over his head. "Aozora! I knew your name sounded familiar. You're a genius or something, aren't you? That'd explain your memory."

I was glad he had less extravagant of a response than Karasuno, but still heard Tsukishima snicker in the background.

And I instinctively knew I couldn't trust Kuroo.

He had figured out something that took Karasuno almost a year to know. He had bothered to talk to me, a faceless in a crowd of main characters.

I read his expression. The deceitful smirk that barely reached his eyes. A glint in his eye that made me think that even if I played every card I had in hand perfectly, he'd still find a way to wreck me at the end.

Maybe I was overexaggerating.

_Maybe I should give him a chance. He hasn't done anything. Not yet._ I thought.

Yeah.

Chill, Aozora.

Don't be paranoid.

But don't let your guard down.

* * *

When we arrived at the gym, Nekoma's setter immediately caught my eye. I was stuck in conversation with Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, but kept watching Kenma's pudding-like hair in my peripheral.

"I'm amazed you got those two to pass." Kei said, looking at Nishinoya and Tanaka bemusedly. "What cheating method did you teach them?"

I shrugged, as I wasn't able to make a witty enough comeback without looking dumb.

I kept glancing at the setter.

Then I noticed that someone was actually looking back at me, and it wasn't Kenma.

It was Kuroo.

I looked back to Tsukishima quickly, my face heating up in embarrassment because I was caught staring.

Tsukishima looked down at me with that stupid grin he gets whenever he knows he has something to potentially tease someone about.

He opened his mouth, and I interjected with a (not-so) joking, "You're impossible."

I walked away from him and back up to the stands, but looked at Nekoma's setter/captain duo.

I wanted to talk to Kenma, but I didn't know what I'd say or what kind of impression that would make.

If I even talked to him, would Kuroo put the notion of 'she likes him' into his head? Was he that kind of person? Or would Kenma just think that by himself?

I figured out my answer during their break during a stroke of genius.

He pulled out his PSP and a Final Fantasy game, and the minute Kuroo left, I approached.

He was friends with Hinata, which meant he didn't mind enthusiastic types. That was my answer.

And so I walked over to him and said, "Hi." With a smile as easygoing as I could make it.

He was clearly startled, but then looked at me for a few seconds. Based off experience, he was probably wondering what to do.

"Um, Tidus-san*, was it?" I asked. I knew his name, but he didn't know that.

His eyes widened in recognition. I caught a faint smile for a millisecond before he pursed his lips and looked back at his PSP with a neutral expression. He looked at the floor for a second and asked, slowly, quietly and cautiously, "Have you played it?"

"Final Fantasy V? Yeah. I haven't played the one you're playing, though. How is it?" I looked at the empty space next to him and he moved slightly.

"It's fine." He kept his sentences concise. Just relating to him wasn't enough to befriend him.

There was a moment of silence as I thought about what I'd say next, but he initiated the conversation. "I'm Kozume Kenma, by the way."

I feigned innocence. "Ah, thanks! I forgot your name from the first time we met! I'm Aozora Kotori! It's nice to see you again!" I placed a confident hand on my chest. The gesture felt foreign.

"I know." He replied. "I'm a second year, too. I saw your name on Japan's ranking."

"Oh, really? Wow! I didn't expect to be _that_ popular! Even people in Tokyo know about me, haha! That makes me feel a little nervous…" I scratched my cheek, imitating gestures I had noticed Azumane do. It would have been better if Kenma had something to relate to. "But anyway, you play video games, right? Do you have League**? What's your Summoner Name? Do you mind if I add you? I mean, it's totally fine if you want to keep your account low-key, but I think it'd be fun to play together!"

Too many hand gestures. Bullet-like questions. Way too much cheerfulness. I hated it. Didn't matter. Really. This was practice.

"Sure." He replied concisely. At first, I thought he had just absentmindedly agreed, but then noticed his fingers had stopped moving and the pause screen/menu was opened.

I pretended not to notice and grinned. "Great! Also, I think it's really cool how you play setter…" I trailed off. I was about to say, 'without having physical skill', but decided against it.

"It's nothing special." He replied. "In fact, the team can be really stupid about that. Especially Ku–"

"Hey, Kenma."

"Tori-san!"

Both Kuroo's and Nishinoya's voices called out for each person respectively. The more enthusiastic Nishinoya reached me first.

"Tori-san, hey! We're just about done for today! We just need to wait for Fukurodani to finish up." Nishinoya claimed. "But, hey, wanna help put things away?"

I nodded my head to agree, and told Kenma, "It was nice seeing you again. I'd like to talk to you more sometime."

He nodded, seeming a bit more relaxed around me. "Yeah."

After I left, in a conversation I couldn't hear, Kuroo turned to Kenma and asked, "So, do you like her?"

Kenma's eyes widened in surprise for a moment at the awkward question before he narrowed them and honestly replied, "Not in the way you're _implying._"

Kuroo laughed. "I know. I was just kidding." Kenma frowned in a way that clearly told Kuroo _I-know-but-it-still-wasn't-funny_. Kuroo grinned again at Kenma's reaction, but looked back towards me with a more serious expression.

"But you know, that girl you were talking to might just be a liar." Kuroo claimed. "The way she does it isn't a big deal or anything, but it's probably best if she gets out of that habit."

"Are you going to be more specific or not?" Kenma frowned.

"What? Are you curious?" Kuroo teased.

"No." Kenma replied.

Kuroo simply smiled in response, nodded over in my direction, and smirked.

"Just watch."

* * *

A few days after the trip, I'd managed to borrow a volleyball and practiced outside the gym. They were just typical drills I had learned in gym class, such as bouncing the ball off the wall and volleying it back up.

It was late, but since Kageyama and Hinata were using the gym for something, I had decided to spend my time attempting volleyball.

Like always, my thumbs felt like they were being pushed back and the ball didn't go where I wanted it to. I had followed the instructions properly, but the result was still as predicted.

Why was I even trying? Volleyball wasn't my sport.

Keep going. I had to have some determination.

Even if my thumbs hurt by the slightest _movement_, or if my arms would have bruises on them…

I had to.

I was ready to tear my hair out in frustration. Or cry, but that would make me look like a 'crybaby'. But still… I hadn't been as frustrated since the time I had tried to learn about slopes in grade four.

Trying again, Tanaka came up behind me. "Hey, Aozora-san. What're you doing?"

My face turned beet red in embarrassment over being caught in the act. I firmly held onto the volleyball. I was too surprised and frustrated to create a lie, but also too surprised and frustrated to tell the truth. I settled with the most intelligent word in my dictionary. "Um…"

"That looked… really painful. Wait, was that supposed to be a set?" Tanaka asked blatantly. I became even more embarrassed.

"Um, yes?" I answered awkwardly. He laughed.

"S-Sorry! Haha! It's not like that! Your fingers are as stiff as boards! Doesn't that hurt?" He asked.

"Uh, well…"

Suddenly, a crash resounded from the gym and Tanaka and I both heard the screech of gym shoes, Yachi's squeal, and Hinata yelling Kageyama's name in a not-so-friendly voice.

Yachi burst from the gym doors, shouting for help. Tanaka rushed in, yelling, "QUIT IT, YOU TWO!"

I felt a moment of shock and surprise—just like, _woah_—but then my frustration at not being able to play volleyball came in and I became… quite indifferent about it.

Oh well. Having those two in a fight would get me into trouble.

I walked into the gym. Tanaka had joined Kageyama and Hinata's fistfight, while Yachi stayed back. Yachi held her fist near her mouth and her eyebrows were scrunched in worry. "A-Aozora-senpai…?"

I thought about how to stop the mess in front of me without having to fight with my fists. I couldn't get the teacher, or else Tanaka would be involved in the penalty and Hinata and Kageyama could be banned from club activities, affecting the team's morale.

Okay. Whatever.

I stared at the volleyball in my hands.

Now, the thing about volleyball, or any other kind of ball, is that when it's thrown at you, it _hurts_. That was something I knew very well.

It didn't matter if the person was weak or exceptionally strong. As long as they were above the age of five, it hurt considerably.

I knew my arms wouldn't have the strength to really injure them. I put the volleyball on the ground…

"Aozora-senpai…? What are you…?"

… and kicked it as hard as I could in their direction.

It managed to sock Kageyama right in the face—an action I'd apologize for later—and bounce off the back of Tanaka's head.

I wasn't even scared of these guys anymore. I was scared about what they'd think of me, sure, but even Kageyama had the class not to punch a nerdy girl that was one hundred and sixty centimeters tall.

"Oh no, should I report this to the vice-principal? Two guys are fighting in the gym. It would be horrible if they got banned from club activities!" I exclaimed. It was spoken with such toneless exaggeration that it could only be called an act.

"Really, now. Was fighting it out your best way of solving things? If so, then I'd have to agree with the majority—you two really _are_ stupid." I claimed.

Hinata and Kageyama glared at each other before turning away. I was making this way too serious.

I clasped my hands and perked up in mock surprise. The kind an anime character would do. I turned towards Yachi. "Oh, no! Wait, Yachi-san, you never told me this was just Hinata and Kageyama's _lovers quarrel!_"

Tanaka burst out laughing. Hinata's intimidating presence disappeared as he and Kageyama shouted, "What?!"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure what the problem is," I told them, "but knowing you two, you guys should probably give it a bit more thought."

I glanced over at Hinata. "Don't jump needlessly into things when you can talk it through and make a plan first."

My eyes drifted to Kageyama. "And if I had to guess what this fight was about… my advice to _you_ would be to try something new."

Both of them looked away. I walked past them.

"U-Uh, Aozora-san? Where're you going?" Tanaka asked.

"I'm going to get the medical kit. You guys should stay right here. Yachi-san, please make sure they don't fight again." I called out.

Behind my back, I could hear Tanaka say in awe, "That was kind of badass?"

* * *

After the fight, on my way home, I texted Nishinoya while walking to the bus stop.

[Aozora Kotori: Oh my god. Did I do the right thing?]

[Nishinoya Yuu: what r u talking abt?]

[Aozora Kotori: Okay. So, basically, I was practicing volleyball outside the gym when Yachi comes out screaming because Hinata and Kageyama were fighting so Tanaka goes in fists blazing and I break up the fight by kicking a volleyball into Kageyama's face and then I called them stupid and lovers.]

[Nishinoya Yuu: 1 sec u were practicing volleyball and called kageyama and shouyou lovers?]

Shoot.

Suddenly, I heard Kageyama call out, "Aozora-senpai!" From behind me.

I turned around. Kageyama walked up to me. Despite being my kouhai***, I had to crane my neck to see him. Just like with Tsukishima.

"What did you mean by, 'try something new'?" He asked.

I didn't think he'd _confront_ me about it. This guy was a true idiot.

"Um…" With my phone screen turned away from Kageyama, I sent 'HELP' to Nishinoya as a joke. Was Kageyama mad?

"I want to improve. If there was anything you had in mind…"

"There isn't." I replied. Kageyama didn't understand. "When I said 'try something new', I guessed that Hinata wanted to try something new and you were sticking too firmly to your principles… was I wrong?"

Kageyama gave the same blank stare as Nishinoya usually had. "How could you tell?"

Explaining would be tedious. "My intuition."

"That's not an answer." Kageyama frowned. I looked over at him. It was the ideal time to make him a friend.

So, I said something interesting. "If you try a proper smile, I'll tell you."

Kageyama was taken aback for a second; then his mouth morphed into something I couldn't grace with a description. "L-Like this?"

"Nope. Not even close." I said, causing his strange expression to settle into his resting glare again.

"Not to be rude, but what do you mean?!" Kageyama asked.

I turned back towards him, summoning the cutest smile that I could as an example. "Like this!"

His eyes widened at the sudden change as I turned back around. When he peered at my face again, all traces of the smile had completely disappeared.

"Well, smiling properly might be impossible for you right now. You're just not the type of person who can be forced to smile. " I said. "You'd probably be super popular if you did, though."

He furrowed his eyebrows. He looked mildly flustered, but claimed, "I don't care about popularity. Anyway, Aozora-senpai. You still haven't told me what you meant by trying new things."

I sighed. "Well, you always stick to your own agenda. If you set a rule for yourself, that rule should be held at all costs. Right?"

"Obviously. What's the point of goal-setting if—"

"But you see, you're creating a tunnel-vision for yourself by doing that. You're not letting in any other ideas. I'm not telling you to accept _every_ idea, but you should take some of them into consideration." I said.

Then my flustered side came out. "O-Oh, I'm sorry for interrupting you! I—uh…" I remembered that Kageyama needed someone thoughtful and composed. "Well, it's not like it's a big deal."

"I'm not going to toss anything that I know won't work. That's stupid." Kageyama said.

"Then make it work. Practice makes perfect, right?" I asked. "Anyway, I need to hurry ahead. I'll miss my ride home if I idle any longer. See you tomorrow, Kageyama-kun."

Kageyama grumbled as I walked away, muttering something about idiots and not being lovers.

* * *

[28 New Messages!]

I lay in bed, staring at my bright phone screen. Scrolling down the list of messages sent by Nishinoya, who was concerned over the ambiguous meaning of the word 'help'.

I sighed, but smiled.

[Aozora Kotori: I'm fine. See you at training camp tomorrow.]

* * *

I was struck with a sense of déjà vu as Hinata fired bullet-like questions at Kenma while we were walking to training camp.

Thinking of it as better to not interrupt, I walked a few paces behind them and caught sight of Nishinoya, who had his normal banter with Tanaka going on while Azumane awkwardly grinned.

They looked like they were having fun, so I didn't want to interrupt them.

It was probably the best choice too, since Nishinoya might have had a crush on Azumane.

… But on the other hand, why did that matter? I could do what I wanted.

And so, stupidly, without thinking, I asked, "Nishinoya-kun, are you excited for training camp?"

He was caught off-guard for a moment, but then replied, "Heck yeah! What about you, Tori-san?

I hesitantly hummed, "Hmm, yeah. I guess I am."

Just like his usual self, he changed topic. "So, I heard Ryuu caught you practicing outside the gym…"

He trailed off when he saw the surprise on my face. I found myself resenting Tanaka, but mostly embarrassment.

"Oh… yeah." I was reminded of how badly I sucked at it, and my voice became meek.

I saw Kenma turn away from Hinata and towards me, but when I looked over, he quickly darted his head away.

"Why didn't you tell me?! I could've helped!" Nishinoya protested.

Being the true deadpanned snarker that I was, I replied, "I don't have confidence in your teaching abilities."

His mouth widened in protest as he fired complaint after complaint. The corners of my mouth subtly twitched upwards as I paid him no mind.

"I'll prove it to you! After practice tonight!" He exclaimed boldly, like the macho man he pretended to be.

"Oh, no. That's not a question I need answered."

Of course Nishinoya wasn't the type to take no for an answer. "I'm still going to! Watch! At the end of it, you'll be a better Spiker than Ushiwaka!"

'Ushiwaka'? Oh my god.

"Noya-san, you don't even spike!" Tanaka exclaimed, shoving him lightly in the ribs.

"W-Well then, she'll be almost as good at libero-ing than me!"

"You should just say that she'll be better than you! Plus, Liberoing isn't even a word!"

"I know that, stupid!"

"Who's the stupid one here?!"

I watched their banter, and almost laughed.

* * *

During their break during practice, Nishinoya had suddenly pulled me outside by the arm.

It wouldn't be an understatement to say 'dragged', either. Looking back on the event, it was quite comedic. I had been minding my own business, jotting down my notes when I was suddenly interrupted by a loud, "Tori-san!" as Nishinoya grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

I had insisted that we go away from the building as to not embarrass myself, and he had complied with my request. He pulled me outside the third gymnasium, and decided to practice there.

Even though I was there, I didn't feel like bruising my hands anymore, since they had already hurt. It also would've been rude if I'd just declined his offer, because he was so enthusiastic.

"Alright! I kinda suck at tossing, so I'll teach you receives instead!" He exclaimed, holding out the ball to me.

I stared at it. Not even in confusion. I just stared. He gave it a little shake, beckoning for me to take it.

"Nishi—"

"Take iiiit." He whined. I finally took it out of his hands, and he moved backwards and bent his knees. "Alright, now throw it."

I threw it high up in the air. While staring intently at it, he said, "Okay, it's really easy. All you have to do is go fwoosh, clap, and…" he waited until the ball was near him and hit it up in a perfect curve to land back in my arms. "Bam. Get it?"

I stared down at the ball. He looked a little concerned, but kept trying to keep up his happy facade. "Alright, now try bumping it over to me."

He took the ball and threw it. I watched it spin; a flurry of white, red, and green—like Christmas colours—and once it had come down, I clasped my hands together and hit it near my thumb again. It stung, and didn't go anywhere near Nishinoya.

I grit my teeth as he went to get it. "It's fine, we can try again! That time, it was more of 'duk' than 'bam', you know what I mean…? Ao… Tori-san?"

I covered up by face with my bangs. Black hair fell in front of my face in strands and I spoke through my makeshift darkness, "Nishinoya-kun, I appreciate what you're trying to do… I-I really do. I know you're probably trying hard and all, but… please don't. I… I'm sorry for wasting your time and everything. You could've probably been having fun with Tanaka-kun… or making a new friend, but…"

My vision blurred and I whispered obscenities to myself while closing my eyes, hoping the tears would dry up before I could cry. "I, uh, I'm really sorry. I _know_ you don't like this kind of person, so… j-just forget about this. I'm just being stupid. I'll go back to normal in a little bit, okay? So…"

I shook my head and just sat down on the steps. I pulled my bangs over the eye that was closest to Nishinoya and sighed. The breath came out slightly shakier than an exasperated one.

Nishinoya sat next to me on the steps and leaned forward to try and see my face. I wasn't crying (not yet, anyway), but I refused to let him see my expression.

Nishinoya seemed like he had no clue on what to do, so he just asked, albeit awkwardly, "…Do you want a hug?"

I noticed that he'd asked permission instead of immediately jumping on me like he would have to anyone else. I appreciated that.

I didn't really care at the moment. I felt tired of closing myself off, but also didn't want to reveal everything in some sort of desperate plea. I simply replied by leaning on him. He looked a bit startled, but looked away abruptly.

That was fine.

He didn't talk and I didn't feel like talking.

He suddenly broke it. "Uh… Aozora-san, why do you hate sports? If you do, why'd you join?"

"I'm not good at it. Isn't that reason enough?" I asked. I almost let slip that I had joined the team because of him, but managed to shut my mouth.

"Oh. Then, Tori-san, are you a natural genius?" Nishinoya asked.

I knew where this conversation was going, but I couldn't tell if he was planning it or genuinely asking the question.

"Not natural, but it wasn't like I was that full of hard work, either." I said. "I liked reading a lot when I was a kid, so my first few years gave really good results. My parents wanted me to keep up and advance myself further. I did. There was also this one senior a year above me who set really high standards for all the teachers I had, so I had to beat those, too."

"So you worked hard to beat _them_, right?" Nishinoya asked.

My sigh mixed with the sounds of crickets and cicadas as my head rested on his shoulder. "I guess."

"So! Let's try it with volleyball!" I moved my head once I sensed he was getting up. He moved over the the volleyball we'd abandoned and picked it up.

My expression was tangled between frustration, exasperation, and lethargy, but I still watched Nishinoya hold up the ball.

"I'm pretty bad at explaining things, but you're smart, Tori-san, so you usually get what I'm saying even if I say 'bada-boom!' or something." Nishinoya said.

I wasn't in the mood for his antics and thought I'd made that clear, but I still went along with it.

He threw the volleyball up in the air and bent down his knees.

And just then, I had a revelation.

The thoughts of, _no way no way no way no way no _FUCKING_ way I didn't notice this sooner…_

Nishinoya had used his legs to power most of his bump to hit the volleyball instead of swinging his arms upward, like my class had.

Not just that, but he hit it on his forearms—wrists facing up and almost dead center between his wrists and his elbows.

I recalled the way I had hit volleyballs—I'd always hit it with my hands clasped together, next to the wrist area. It'd hit my thumb one out of three times…

But there was no way it was _this obvious_.

Being suddenly kicked out of my dumps and into a revelation, I was confused and shocked. Nishinoya caught the ball.

"Tori-san?"

"I just realized something." I said. "Yuu, thank you."

Nishinoya looked just as confused as I had. "What? You're welcome, but why?"

"Nothing I can explain." I was just in a rush to test out my theory in private. "I need to go now. Thank you so much."

"Wha—wait!" He shouted, before I could completely run away. When he saw the genuine curiosity on my face, coupled with the smile and glint in my eye, I saw him avert his eyes.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Well… it's just, like…" Nishinoya forced everything out in one breath, "If you, like, lean on guys or hug other guys or stuff, they'd… get the wrong idea for sure! Especially if you say it's something special to you!"

I laughed it off. "Yuu, there…" I cut myself off.

_There isn't anyone but you._

I tried to imagine leaning on anyone else, but nothing made sense. Nothing felt comfortable—the simulations I ran in my brain all felt awkward.

Except for Nishinoya.

_He's the only one._

It was my turn to turn red. "A-Anyway, I've gotta go! Let's practice again sometime! Sometime when I'm good enough!"

Without any rebuttal, I ran out of the room and away to practice by myself.

* * *

Working behind the gym again, I looked at the ball differently. I tossed it up in the air.

I had observed so many volleyball games, but hadn't noticed that I hit the volleyball differently each time.

Was it because of my lack of interest towards the sport?

Probably.

I kept tossing the ball, doing my best to keep it from swerving in a different direction.

My bumps were improving since I'd tried Nishinoya's new method. It was still nowhere near his level, but at the very least, it had stopped hurting as much and it was somewhat controlled.

What broke me out of my thoughts was a voice that reminded me just how tiring cheerful people were.

"See, Akaashi! I _told_ you it wasn't my imagination!" I heard one of the Fukurodani players yell. He had poked his head out from the door and around the corner just to see me. I stopped tossing the volleyball and looked over at him.

He swerved his spiky, salt-and-pepper hair back to the gymnasium to hoot at his junior some more.

Coupled with his hair, his large, round eyes, and his manner of speech, I couldn't help but think that he reminded me of a barn owl.

Owl. Fukuro****. Fitting.

The owl looked back at me, and narrowed his eyes for a second before they widened in mock surprise. "Oh! You're that genius girl, aren't you!"

Oh my god. Did _everyone_ know?

"By the way, Genius-san. You know that's not how you're supposed to toss, right?" He called out. I immediately blushed, unable to answer.

Luckily, I was saved from that responsibility by an even more unfortunate event. "Oh, Aozora-san's out there?"

Swinging from the doorframe, Kuroo appeared behind owl-man with a smirk. "What're you doing here, so late at night?"

"Practicing." I said briefly, although 'learning' would have been more accurate.

"C'mon in, you can practice with us." Kuroo offered—something that the owl was glad to accommodate. When I was about to decline, Kuroo interrupted yet again.

"We've got Fukurodani's setter, Nekoma's blocker, and one of Japan's top five spikers in here. It'd probably be helpful." Kuroo claimed. It was oddly amiable, considering I was used to his suspicious actions.

"Glasses-san was in here earlier, too." The spiker said, going back inside with Kuroo. I followed them.

Although I didn't want to make a fool out of myself, I needed help with volleyball—more help than Nishinoya could give—and went in with them.

Continuing the conversation, I recognized 'glasses-san'. "You mean Tsukishima? From Karasuno?"

"Yeah, that guy." Kuroo said.

As I walked onto the _court_, not into the stands, I felt like I hadn't been there in a while.

I turned towards the two strangers. "Who are you guys, by the way…? N-Not to sound rude or anything!"

The owl laughed heartily, interrupting any chance that his friend would've had to speak, and pointed at himself and then his friend. "I'm Bokuto Koutaro, this guy's my kouhai, Akaashi Keiji!"

Walking past Haiba Lev's dead body, I went over to Kuroo. He had paused his practice to message someone on his phone.

He glanced up (or rather, down, due to the difference in sizes) at me and grinned. "Curious who I'm texting?"

I looked away, refusing to say anything in the case of falling for his provocations. He made it so easy to do so, though. To the point where you would feel like you had no other choice.

"Yeah, well. He might not want to come, anyway. Especially if he's got his PSP out already, but… well. He's better at teaching anyways. It'll work out if it's you." Kuroo claimed, locking his iPhone and stuffing it back in his bag as he got up to practice blocks again.

I watched the three practice and took note of their positions and strength.

I wondered why they had invited me. Or even why they were practicing with each other. They were enemies, but…

Maybe that was something I found enthralling about volleyball—the mutualism. They didn't share a symbiotic relationship, and sometimes they just showed altruism.

I was a small bird in a room of cats and owls*****.

I looked suspiciously at Kuroo. Was he naturally this observant? Could he always tell what people were thinking?

While dwelling on Kuroo, I realized that I had broken my persona around him, but he hadn't reacted any differently. Almost as though he _knew_, undoubtedly, that I had been using a persona, and yet didn't mind.

Not to mention the way Kuroo had said 'he's better at teaching anyways'. Did that imply…?

My suspicions were confirmed when a familiar pudding-head came into the gym. "Kuro. Where's my game."

"Actually, there's someone I think you should teach." Kuroo told Kenma, and gestured over to me.

* * *

**ohhhh holy CRAP I CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT THIS OUT INBETWEEN EXAMS**

***Tidus - A Final Fantasy character who has a hairstyle vaguely similar to kenma's.**

***talking about the sky - aozora's name literally means 'blue sky'.**

****league - league of legends, for those who aren't acquainted with the term.**

*****kouhai - the opposite of senpai. underclassman**

******fukuro - fukuro means owl.**

******* small bird in a room of cats and owls - kotori's name literally translates to small bird, and cats refers to _neko_ma and owls in _fukuro_dani.**

**i post small updates on tumblr if you want to check that out; follows the same name as my fanfiction account.**

**oh my shiza i can't believe i actually am getting this up while i procrastinate i'm so lucky you're so lucky we all profit mate**

**sigh**

**now back to my hole.**

**i'll work harder!**

**#SSB**


	11. That Bird Is Trash

**Sky Ball**

**XI: The Bird is Trash**

* * *

**I'll put the thank yous up later I just need to get this chapter out**

* * *

Kenma looked mildly surprised at Kuroo's suggestion. His cat-like eyes darted to me for a moment, but hovered back to Kuroo. Kenma frowned, and gave his usual curt reply, "No. Absolutely not. Give my game back, Kuro."

Although it may have been the wiser decision to stay silent, I wasn't in the ideal state of mind and protested, "Um, although I appreciate the sentiment, I don't want to _force_ him to do something he wouldn't enjoy."

Kuroo caught on immediately. "Such _formality_. Not only that, you're acting awfully different than how you were earlier."

My mind went blank. There were times I thought Nishinoya had called my bluffs, but nobody had ever noticed like this. Kenma, also realizing Kuroo's point since it was mentioned, blinked a few times. It dawned on him that my act seemed so normal despite being an act.

I lied again. "H-Huh? Oh, I was just trying to be polite, haha. I mean, I don't have the Miyagi accent normally*, in case that's what you were referring to."

"That's not it." Kuroo replied. His clever gaze looked down on me yet again. "Most people change the way they act in front of others, but not many people do it _intentionally_."

I smiled at him and furrowed my eyebrows, rubbing the back of my neck with my hand. "Um, I'm not sure…"

"You know what I mean, right?" He interrupted, shutting me up quickly.

My sheepish smile broke for a second, turning into an analytical stare that strictly observed Kuroo.

Kuroo didn't know any other expression that could have suited me better.

"Well," Kuroo said, breaking the tension all of a sudden, "I'll make you a deal, Kenma."

I expected Kenma to refuse yet again, but after my he looked at Kuroo with a golden glint in his cat-like eyes. One that showed intrigue and curiosity. Although Kenma didn't voice a response, Kuroo continued. "I'll figure something else out. And if she catches your interest in a way that's easy for you to handle, then you can teach her."

"Fine."

"'Sides," Kuroo said, walking onto the court, "she can't be harder to teach than Lev, right?"

Kenma made a face I'd never seen before—as if he had eaten a sour candy and hit in the face with a shovel—and looked away. "True. She's not. _Definitely_ not." He replied with certainty although he'd never seen me play before. I looked back at Lev, who had uttered a single groan of exhaustion, and wondered what exactly had transpired to make him that way.

"Hey, Bokuto. Akaashi. Wanna send us one?" Kuroo asked, and they set up for a spike.

"H-Hold on, Kuroo-san! I barely know how to play. Throwing me right into the fray is a bad idea, don't you think?" I objected desperately.

Kuroo gave an uncanny, cheerful smile. "What? How else are you supposed to do it?"

Just then I realized why Lev was spread-eagled on the floorboards and regretted every decision.

I imitated a ready position as Bokuto sent the first spike. It happened at a level I could easily process, and my brain took note of Bokuto's pattern. However, when I was ready to receive the straight, he seemed to grab it and curve it at the last second, moving it into a cross spike.

I saw my weakness: the obvious difference in experience. I felt that if I had even a month of proper, rigorous training, I would be able to do somewhat decently. But there were too many plays; too many different muscle positions for me to observe to predict their next line of action perfectly. If I had experience, it wouldn't have been a sweat, but…

Well. I had a starting point. Bokuto's typical spike.

"Can we try that again?" I asked, fully using my perceptive eyes to their full potential. Kuroo smirked, but Bokuto grinned widely—one that was ready to accept whatever he thought I had in store. Although I didn't have much, and would likely ultimately disappoint him, it was still worth a shot. "One more time, if you would please."

* * *

It took four times to flawlessly receive Bokuto's spike.

The first time was a dud since it had been my first time seeing his actions. During the second, he pulled off a feint, which was another play I hadn't seen before from my angle. The third was a straight that flew right past my head. One I almost needed to dodge.

Kuroo asked why I hadn't moved, but stopped half-sentence when he saw I was up to something.

I noticed Bokuto's difference in position for a fake, straight, and cross-spike. The fourth was a repeat of the first, and although Bokuto was about to hit it towards me, I had noticed the shift in his starting jump.

This one was faster and the sound was louder than the first time, but the actions were the same. I even heard Bokuto grimace and tell Akaashi he might've hit it too hard. I was waiting at the end, lunging to reach it. It bounced off my oddly stretched out arms, but it went up as I went down, hitting my knees and elbows off the hard surface.

Akaashi caught it on the other side—a receive that would've gone right back to the other team. Terrible, but it was more than I had done before, and the prediction was spot on. Kuroo had extended a hand to help me up.

Rejecting his hand and pulling myself up, I properly saw his grin. "Wanna do that again?" He asked.

I wasn't going to lie. I felt accomplished when I hit the ball—like finishing a hard math problem.

"No." I replied, deadpanned. Kuroo's cool exterior became very confused, and I had to elaborate. "It hurt my arms. I don't want to."

"Akaashi." Bokuto said, facing away from me. He sounded uncharacteristically serious, and made me believe that something important was to be said. Akaashi's face looked almost pained. The same kind of expression I had when Nishinoya did something stupid. "Hurting such an innocent, cute girl… don't pass to me!" Bokuto complained, covering his face to hide invisible tears.

I was surprised by his description. 'Cute and innocent'? Me?

Kuroo looked in my flustered direction and had to stifle a laugh. "As true or false as it may be, Bokuto thinks a lot of girls are cute."

What did that mean? He shamelessly implied that I was only a small portion of Bokuto's low standards, but also claimed that it was a possibility I was cute. Or completely false. There was nothing of it.

Kenma stared at Kuroo, trying to evaluate Kuroo's lies just as intently as I was. In the end, it seemed as though both of us had given up, since we changed subjects. "You're really not up for another?" Kuroo asked. He walked over to the other side of the net and gave Kenma a ball.

I recognized the look that Kenma gave me and identified it as pity. I wondered why until I saw him look back at Kuroo, who was already midair when Kenma threw the ball up at him.

I saw Kuroo's shitty grin as he spiked it at me, and though I could've dodged, my body instinctively moved the way he wanted—it hit the ball, but still swerved off in an odd direction. My arms stung. I could tell that Kuroo was holding back, but it still hurt.

"Why'd you receive that, then? If you're 'not up for another', that is." Kuroo said. Kenma rolled his eyes.

I knew I could've walked out of the room at any point.

But then, the small bird—who had always watched the interactions in the ecosystem from safety by sitting on the fence—flew down and into the garbage heap.

I always _did_ joke around about how I deserved to be part of the trash, anyway.

* * *

When Shimizu woke me up the next day, I could feel my regrets. Even just sitting up caused immense pain and left me to wonder why the hell I agreed to stay to practice last night…

"Um, Aozora-san, is something wrong?" She asked, still standing in the doorway.

I winced in pain, but smoothed it out as a yawn while shaking my head. "Huh? No, just tired. Thanks for the consideration, though."

Shimizu nodded and left, completely believing my lie. I winced as I got up. Yachi must've already woken up, and was probably preparing food.

After getting dressed and brushing my teeth, I walked out of the room. I saw the Karasuno boys through the window, indicating that they were coming back from a morning jog. How productive.

The food was served outside, forcing me to fight a sun that provoked me to starve myself and stay inside instead.

I looked at the Nekoma boys from a distance. Everyone ate vigorously, hungry from their jog, except for Kenma who picked at his food while playing on his Nintendo. His aberrance (in comparison to his team) brought a smile to my face. Kenma then looked up, and I quickly looked away.

While watching them, I suddenly felt two hands grasp my sore arms. I winced in pain and glanced back to see Nishinoya, who was trying to surprise me.

"Gotch…" Nishinoya said, thinking he had scared me. But then his eyebrows furrowed and he let go. "S-Sorry…?"

I forced a smile. "About what?"

He looked at my arms. "Tori-san, can you pull your sleeves up?"

My eyes widened a fraction. My mind whirred, wondering 'does he know? Why does he care? Of course he'd know; he ends up with a new injury every day…'

My eyes widened for a fraction of a second. Before my mouth beat me to a question, I used my head. Just asking 'why' would seem way too suspicious, and I didn't want to arise any concern. Especially not over a few sores. So instead, I turned the tables and said, "Aww, are you worried about me?"

I expected him to blush and ramble on about how he sends his undying love towards Shimizu, but other than a small embarrassed frown, he remained serious. "I just wanna see for a sec."

"Nah, I'm kinda chilly right now." I insisted, sounding as casual as possible.

"Tori-san, it is summer." Nishinoya pointed out.

"On the contrary, it's late spring." I replied. "Very late spring."

"Whatever!" He smacked his face in both defeat and discontent. "Just show me."

I sent a sidewards glance at him. He seemed to be looking at me earnestly, a small frown and his eyebrows furrowed. Unlike myself, who usually avoided eye contact, he was clearly facing me.

"Don't freak out when you see them." I said.

"Wait, Tori-san, do you cut yourself?" He asked. I nearly choked on the spit I was trying to swallow, and he took that as an affirmation for some reason and started going off on some rant against self-harm and an endless stream of generic compliments flew out his mouth.

"No! That's not it at all!" I interjected. "Look, see?"

I brandished my arms. It wasn't as mild as I thought―the purple was a clear contrast from my light skin, and it was in the exact spot where one would receive with.

There was a pause. It wasn't funny anymore, and the atmosphere changed entirely.

"Who did this?" Nishinoya said. For a second, I heard the same tone of voice he had right before he was suspended back in our first year.

It was kind of scary, in a way.

Not the voice itself. Normally, I could've compared it with Kageyama's usual speaking voice. But the fact that it came from him, a guy who was normally happy-go-lucky?

That's what makes a voice scary, no matter what anyone else says.

My mind almost drew a blank, but I couldn't tell him about Kuroo or Kenma. He might not listen to the full story before bursting in action. Although my eyes fleeted in their direction, I managed to say, "I… wanted to practice volleyball…?"

Nishinoya's eyes fell, and he suddenly looked... guilty. "Oh. I… I didn't mean to…"

I raised an innocent eyebrow at him, and he shook his head. His voice grew quieter as he avoided eye contact. "Like, I mean, I told you that I wanted to play volleyball with you, but I didn't want you to hurt yourself or anything."

"I'm not that self-destructive, you know." I frowned. "I just―"

"NOYA-SAN! Are you going to eat, or are you gonna run to the city and back on your willpower alone?" Tanaka shouted over. "Besides, Kiyoko-san helped make it, and HOH BOY is it GOOD!"

"Yeah, coming!" Nishinoya called back. Either he hadn't heard Tanaka's throwaway comment about how Shimizu helped make the food or he didn't care, because his gaze on me lingered for a few extra seconds before he ran off to the table.

I watched them eat. Since I'd resigned to eat mere leftovers, like the scavenger I was, I sat away from the table. A small bird perched on a pole, watching the ecosystem unfold.

Unfortunately, nature had other things planned. "So, how bad was it?"

I didn't have to turn around to see Kuroo to know who was talking. While staring at Karasuno's table, I directly asked him, "Are you intentionally avoiding speaking to me while I'm speaking to Nishinoya-kun, and vice versa?"

It almost seemed to shock him to think that I had a forte in perceptiveness in addition to having good grades, but he merely shrugged. "Don't wanna interrupt the mood between you two."

"There is no mood."

"Keep telling yourself that."

I knew that although I didn't always agree with Kuroo's odd implications and statements, he had a point sometimes.

It would've been a good time to figure out what he saw, but I didn't. I simply clasped my denial with both my hands and hid the truth.

* * *

Although I had originally intended on coming to the gym that night for practice, but instead, I was intrigued by loud noises outdoors. After I finished packing up my stuff, it seemed like there was nothing to investigate―the earlier shouting had died down, finished with a loud yell of, "WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED THAN PRIDE?!"

And, like a teenage girl would think, I formulated worst-case scenarios despite the last sentence. Was this the start of a horror movie? I seemed like that one character who was dull and absolutely useless to everyone else. In that case, I'd either be the first or the last to die. I wasn't lucky or special enough to be the last to die, so that would mean…

Instead of dizzying myself over it, I decided to enter the gym after packing up my stuff. While opening the doors, I asked, "Hey, Kenma-kun, do you know what all that yelling was abo… ut …?"

My voice died for a second when I saw Tsukishima in the gym. This was a bad scenario. Seeing him, I barely uttered out the last of my sentence.

"Nope, no clue." Tsukishima responded almost immediately, which I found unusual. I counted three logical conclusions about how it could have been him, but decided to withhold the information.

It seemed that Kuroo and Bokuto had a clue (and no doubt that Kenma also wasn't in the dark) since the two almost simultaneously snickered, "Oh, is that so?"

I expected a witty retort from Tsukishima, but he just shrugged it off. I wasn't sure if he actually felt that way, or if that was his sarcastic response: not going along with their joke. Something seemed off. Maybe it was related to the screaming, maybe not.

"Well, I only came to play Sherlock for a few seconds, but looks like this case ends early, Watson." I said. That should've been the conclusion. After that, I should've left, but was interrupted.

"Who's Sherlock?" Bokuto bluntly asked.

Although I could've given my own response, I was beaten by Kenma. "A fictional popular private detective in Britain."

"Like detective Conan**!" Bokuto connected. Kenma's frown was evident and immediate, but he didn't mention how the anime character was named after Sherlock's author.

"Whatever, enough about British detectives. Are you coming to practice or not, Aozora?" Kuroo interjected. Tsukishima's eyebrows immediately raised in intrigue, like a Disney villain with a diabolical plan.

"I mean, you were here yesterday, so."

Kuroo put me on blast. If there were more people, there was no doubt that someone would've yelled "EXPOSED!"

Well, if Tsukishima was going to snicker like that, I'd play Kuroo's game. Besides, I needed to test just how perceptive Kuroo was.

I replied simply and said, "No, I don't play volleyball." And then I left.

After leaving, I realized my mistake. Kuroo might later assume that I was mad at him for revealing my double-life to Tsukishima, even when I didn't personally care.

Oh well.

I continued on and sat down on prickly grass. As I said with Nishinoya, it was early summer and late spring, so the fireflies were beginning to come out. Since Shimizu mentioned that her back door would be open, she mentioned that I could come whenever I wanted after I told her that I'd be staying after practice.

So I simply watched the fireflies flit across the hill, hiding behind blades of grass and lighting up the night in their own small increments.

I wasn't particularly a nature person. I stayed indoors most of the time. I played on my computer. I studied and read.

Yeah. I was that kid.

It sounds even worse when put into introspect. I fit the stereotype for a nerd, down to a T. Heck, people could consider me a hikikomori*** if they stretched it a bit.

Before I could continue shaming myself for being a true nerd, a tall first-year had snuck up on me.

"Were you really that pissed?" Tsukishima asked. I believed it was as 'concerned' as he could sound, but I could still clearly sense the challenging undertone he didn't intend for.

"Nah. I'm just looking at the firefly****." I said. I turned my head up to him and smiled at my own joke.

He gave me an odd tilt of his head and a loud sigh. He didn't actually look upset. It wasn't the same response he'd give if I were Hinata or Nishinoya or any of them. He didn't scold me, or insult my joke.

"That was lame." He said.

Never mind about the 'he didn't insult my joke' part.

He didn't get too comfy. He didn't do anything like sit on the grass beside me. He just asked, "Why do you want to play volleyball all of a sudden, anyway?"

I recalled the voice I had heard earlier, and instead of admitting who it was for rather than why, I decided to mimic the shout. "What more do you need than pride?"

It wasn't something I truly believed, or even related to, but Tsukishima seemed to recognize it―confirming my theory from earlier.

After the initial embarrassment settled down, he finally spoke. "Tch. You did hear it, didn't you. Thought so." His frown grew more relevant as he spoke. "But even if you say that, you're too embarrassed to even play in front of me. Talk about 'pride'."

"Fine, I'll make you a deal." I said, standing up and turning to face him. I realized that I wasn't very challenging, considering my neck would normally be vertical to match his line of sight. Either way, I continued. "If Kuroo-san sees some improvement in you tonight, then I'll practice with you tomorrow."

"That's not a good motivator. Why would I care if you practiced or not?" He said, smirking as I stood up to leave.

"That's too bad," I claimed, firm to my decision as I already knew what he would end up doing.

"But if it comes to watching someone humiliate themselves, then I guess I'll have to pay to see that show."

I knew he'd get his 'money's worth', but I still wanted to see him try.

* * *

Aside from everything going on, the two oddball first years seemed to be locked in a Mexican standoff all week after the stunt I'd pulled in the gym―both had guns pointed and fangs bared at each other, but neither were willing to let it completely go to pot like they did in the gym.

My heart fluttered with hope―perhaps they bothered to listen to me? But the second that thought crossed my mind, my pessimistic side popped up and reminded me through an epiphany that no, they were just likely that they had the decency not to fistfight directly in front of Coach Ukai or Takeda-sensei.

Yachi seemed to be quite close with the first-years, and according to what I heard at night from conversations of (mostly) Shimizu and Yachi, they'd been at odds for the entire week and haven't been syncing up at all.

I had chosen to avoid going to the gym. From what I'd heard, that half-Russian 'Lion' and Hinata had joined their new practice  
posse, which drove away both Kenma and I. Still, I kept in contact with Kuroo and Kenma between training. I even spoke to Bokuto and Akaashi some, since they were surprisingly easy to approach.

When I had finally decided to do a check-up on progress in the gym, a few days had elapsed and we were currently on day five of training camp. The second to last day.

I walked in during a three-versus-three, which was very convenient for my job.

I ignored the height difference and scribbled down notes. They seemed to put most―if not all their attention into the game, so I easily passed by unnoticed. Kenma wasn't there to sit and chat with me, much to my dismay, but with every con there was a pro: there'd be no way I could pass my notes under his cat-like scrutinizing stare.

I managed to complete semi-decent notes on everyone there, keeping track of their development, which was most essential for Karasuno, since the team wasn't syncing up at all as of recently.

It wasn't until after their game that they finally decided to acknowledge my presence. Before Kuroo could make out what was on my page, I flipped to a blank one.

"What were you writing?" Kuroo asked; like always, his intent was perpetually hidden under his almost mocking tone.

"Just studying." I replied, nonchalantly.

He gave a smirk that basically screamed knowledge. "Studying boys is definitely something new."

I flipped to a list of Pythagorian Triples that I had stored in my notebook, and my inner-Tsukishima came out. "Wow, you must be more closely affiliated to the illuminati than I thought you were."

He gave a mildly-intrigued smile at my insult and then shrugged and walked off. When he left, I decided that my business in the gym was over, and headed out.

Almost immediately after walking out, I was assaulted by a figure in the dark… or rather, my head was half-turned and someone who had been waiting outside smashed their face against my cheek.

"Waaaah!" They gave a strange but familiar yell while toppling backwards in surprise and rebounding force.

"Ow… oh! Um! Sorry, I shouldn't be complaining. It's my bad. Are you okay?" I offered a hand out, but faltered.

The dim lighting that the gym provided through the ajar door behind me barely managed to illuminate the victim's face. If it had been anyone else, the chances of me discerning who they were based off of physical attributes laid at about 50/50.

However, there was no way I could assign his 9 cm tall, spiky hair to anyone else.

"Yuu?"

Nishinoya took my hand and I helped him up. He looked unreasonably flustered. Especially for someone who had merely bumped into me. And he was usually quite the loud type. I expected him to shout (practically yodel) in laughter, scratch the back of his head and apologize loud enough for the six people practicing inside to hear.

But no. He took my hand and stared at it, as quiet as Kenma. I couldn't make out the expression on his dimly-lit face, but he was just so weirdly quiet…

"Are you okay?" I interrupted, and he stared at our hands for a second longer before separating them.

"Ah… ahaha! Yeah, I'm fine. It's not your fault. Sorry 'bout that, Tori-san!" He said, going back to his usual energetic mien. It didn't seem like a lie, so he must've shaken off whatever was bothering him moments ago. Nishinoya tended not to be secretive, so I trusted him to tell me later.

"Anyway, what were you doing here?" I asked.

"Oh, I just heard that people practiced here at the end of the day, so! Was wondering if I could join, and… came on by."

I nodded and let out a puff of air in response to his dedication towards the sport. "Werent you practicing with the third years and Tanaka-kun?"

"Well, I figured that a change of pace wouldn't be too bad…" He explained. I understood the feeling a bit too well, and smiled.

"Bokuto-san, Akaashi-kun, Hinata-kun, Kuroo-san, Kei-kun and Hinata-kun are all already in there, but if it's you, I don't think they'd mind another member…" I was tired from just naming six names. Kenma was washing off on me.

But it was futile. He seemed somewhat sheepish, but quickly exclaimed, "How about… how about you practice with us, Tori-san?!"

He even surprised _me_ with his interjection. "Huh?"

"Or if you don't like being with too many people, then if you just want to spike or receive for me, then that's alright, too!"

Although the latter option was preferable, I still didn't understand the sudden change. I shut the open gym door so that Kuroo wouldn't be able to hear the conversation and started walking away from the door. Nishinoya followed my lead, still waiting for a response.

"I mean, that's fine, I guess…" I hesitated before noticing the unanticipated point in his sentence. "Wait, my only responses are to spike or receive for you… doesn't that mean…?"

"Yup," he said, sticking his chest out like the proud peacock he was, "I've been working on my sets!"

I was primarily wondering where we'd practice. I was expecting him to try to oddly accommodate for me again and say 'the back of the gym' or 'the grass next to the road', but it seemed that he still retained some of his own desires as he basically insisted and _dragged_ me back to the gym despite my drowning protests.

"It's not like they're taking up the _whole_ gym, right?" Nishinoya used as an excuse while pulling me back in. I felt inclined to hide my face behind my bangs, especially with the overall commotion that Nishinoya was making, directing everyone's attention over. I could perfectly visualize the expression Kuroo was making, and it was not fond in the slightest.

Eventually, Kuroo must've been feeling oddly generous and decided to end practice after their three-against-three was over. I caught glances in our direction, which I supposed was inevitable. 'A boy and a girl?! Practicing together?! No way!111!' or something like that.

I was also kind of relieved at his selfishness and decision to use the gym despite my protests—I didn't want or need him to bend to my every request or whim, so I refused to sulk. I ignored the glances in our direction.

"So, I get that you want to toss, and it wouldn't be a problem if I could spike, but…" I extended my hand vertically while standing right beside the net. Although my fingertips reached past it, I wasn't exactly able to get much above, even if I jumped. "I don't think I can. It might come as a surprise, but I don't have Hinata's jumping ability."

Nishinoya looked surprised, but not at my statement. Only moments later, I heard Kuroo's voice behind him. "Huh. In that case, I'll spike, and you can receive."

I inwardly groaned at the voice alone. I didn't bother to look after, either. I was annoyed by his tone, and didn't want to imagine what it would be like if I had looked at the extreme-mohawk-cat-man.

"I can't receive either. That's Yuu's thing." I replied.

Nishinoya smiled. "Well, I mean. If that's the problem, then I could receive."

I knew that he had his heart set on setting, which caused me to pull my bangs in frustration at the predicament. Both of them could do all three, but I could only set because it didn't hurt and I was incapable of doing the other.

If one was due to preference, then the answer was easy. "… No. I'll receive."

Nishinoya's eyes lit up and even Kuroo smirked at my response.

Another decision I'd regret.

* * *

I looked at the notes I had taken based off of the extra bit of practice I had with Nishinoya and Kuroo.

Information gathered:

Nishinoya sucks at tossing. Badly. Try to learn how to, and help?

Kuroo is a pretty good spiker too

I'm a decent receiver.

Nishinoya, as stated above, was absolutely terrible at tossing, and he _knew it_, too. I felt kind of bad.

"I say this every _time,_ Tori-san! If something's trash and you don't say it, it'll stay terrible!" He exclaimed, on his knees and grabbing fistfuls of hair while screaming. Both Kuroo and I felt a little overwhelmed at his over exaggeration.

Even when I realized something was wrong, I realized that pointing out the mistake was helpful, but in the end, that _itself_ didn't do anything.

A bit more seriously, and while rubbing my arms at Kuroo's hard receives, I said, "Even if you say it's bad, it doesn't matter if you don't find a way to change it."

"True," Kuroo chimed in. "You're not even saying what's wrong. For example, to list off a few things, your hands didn't sync up, you were way too jumpy, and it sounds more like you're slapping it than tossing."

Nishinoya picked things back up and tried again.

"Wait, before we continue." Kuroo interrupted after a few more spikes. He looked over at me. "Aozora, how're the arms?"

"Your reaction time is great, at least." Nishinoya complimented, even though he was actually talking about my ability to predict. As if I'd have good reactions.

At that point, my teeth were grit so hard that I wouldn't have been surprised if one fell out. The ball hitting the same place on the same arm hurt, and I didn't know how Nishinoya did it with such ease, but I had to keep going.

Twenty one spikes. I had received twenty-one spikes so far. I had received about fifteen with decency as something that'd go to the relative area of the setter. My longest streak was seven consecutive decent receives.

But even Hinata could consecutively receive for fifteen minutes straight, and everyone unanimously agreed that Hinata was terrible at receiving. By that standard, so was I.

I wanted to improve.

"I can go a few more," I managed to say. Nishinoya looked surprised, but then met Kuroo's smirk and stare and looked away.

And at that moment, I finally realized what Nishinoya and Hinata and Kageyama and all those other guys who were passionate about volleyball felt when they lost a game. All of Karasuno's losses this week finally hit me. This is what it felt like.

My reasoning was just a little different.

_I suck._

_It's something I suck at, so why not just give up?_

_But I need to do something for Nishinoya too._

_Or even more than that,_

_I want to improve for him._

* * *

I was brushing my teeth in the washroom while hearing them talk about the team and laughing over their own little jokes.

While leaning over the porcelain sink and looking at my black disheveled nest of hair, I had last heard Shimizu compliment on Yachi's hair, saying something pointless like how she wants to cut her hair but would rather keep it long or whatever, but when I came out of the washroom and sat on the futon that she laid out for me, they were talking about something relevant: the team.

"I really want to see their new combo as soon as possible… it'd be the best if they got it down while we were at training camp!" Yachi enthusiastically gave her signature infectious bright smile while talking about Kageyama and Hinata.

While half-thinking, I managed to say, "Even if they do, I don't think it'll magically help them come in first by the end of training camp. Unless they pull off a miracle, they'll be doing the most flying falls. I actually think Hinata-kun has gotten accustomed to doing them."

They both stared at me for a second, looking surprised that I spoke. I was worried that they seemed angry for a second; similar to movies where the two popular girls shun the loser/weirdo for trying to talk to them while haughtily scoffing, rolling their eyes, and looking away.

I knew they weren't like that, but I was still worried about it.

Instead, Shimizu laughed. "I guess that's true, isn't it? They're doing terribly right now."

Oh. So Yachi was right. Shimizu's smile really was cute. Far cuter than mine.

But Shimizu's voice wasn't laced with malice―she stated what was fact, and couldn't deny it. I decided to complete her thought by saying, "But I think it'll be amazing when it all comes together."

"Yeah!" Yachi exclaimed, "I mean, it's like…! The flower that sprouted through concrete! Climbing an uphill mountain! Something like that?"

I understood her analogy, but smirked at how idealistic it sounded―a flower that blooms through concrete isn't a flower, it would be a weed. Anything that went uphill would only look fantastic temporarily, and would eventually fade as you went back down.

I still laughed, like Shimizu was. Yachi still had a point.

"Well, we have great synergy with Kageyama and Hinata, a super tall first-year, Asahi's super strength, Yamaguchi's pinch setter skills, a backup setter, a strong captain, and… an amazing libero." I said. I noticed my smile at the end. It seemed that the other two did, too.

"I was wondering… I'm just curious, so you don't need to answer if you don't want to, but Aozora-san, do you like Nishinoya?" Shimizu asked.

If this were a shoujo manga, I would have covered both cheeks. A picture of the house would have been shown, and a giant speech bubble saying, "EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!" Would have covered the house.

This was not a shoujo manga. I hadn't seriously considered it, but before I could entertain the thought, Yachi replied to Shimizu. "Huh? But Nishinoya-senpai" (he would have died if he had heard her call him senpai) "likes you, Kiyoko-senpai."

It served as a reminder. Because Nishinoya liked someone else.

The topic changed to all the boys that saw Shimizu and liked her for her looks, and shortly after, we all decided to go to bed and I felt a little closer to the two, who always seemed to go about their own agenda without me.

But even though I would have normally been ecstatic at getting to know them better, and though I forgot what Shimizu had asked concerning me and Nishinoya, I could only wonder why there was a slight pain in my chest.

Probably just ate too much.

* * *

**EXTRA**

[Mohawk cat man: Y'know, I thought you had more of a setter feel like Kenma, but after practice I feel like you're a pretty good libero.]

[Aozora Kotori: no]

[Mohawk cat man: I'm not kidding, you know. You could probably join the girls team if you wanted]

[Aozora Kotori: no]

[Mohawk cat man: …]

[Mohawk cat man: Is 'no' all you're going to say?]

[Aozora Kotori: no]

[Mohawk cat man: Do you hate me]

[Aozora Kotori: yes]

* * *

**so i know a lot of people were interested in seeing kenma and aozora interact but when i actually started writing it out, she got along a lot better with kuroo for some reason? they were both perceptive but i felt that kenma just wouldn't want to get involved in that right away (even if he was curious) while kuroo would.**

***miyagi accent = ****"****As is true in any country, the language actually spoken by the people varies from region to region. Japan is no exception. In Japanese, local dialects in general are referred to as hôgen, while the dialect of a specific area is referred to by the name of the area plus the suffix -ben. Thus the local dialect of Miyagi is called Miyagi-ben." (Rosenthal, 1).  
tl;dr: similar to having a country accent/british accent?**

****detective conan = a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama.  
tl;dr: a little kid plays sherlock. named after arthur conan doyle, using his middle name.**

*****hikikomori = (in Japan) the abnormal avoidance of social contact, typically by adolescent males.  
tl;dr: people who stay inside**

****** firefly = i'm pretty sure i mentioned it, but Kei/Tsukishima's name means 'firefly'. haha. **

**so i finished this chapter a while ago but my ipod broke and i lost all of it.**

**ha.**

**ha ha.**

**i'm serious. **

**coupled with exams, i kind of lost motivation for a month, but it's summer so i'm BACK IN BUSINESS**

**#SSB**


	12. Lie to Me

**Sky Ball**

**XII. Lie to Me**

* * *

The final day of training camp.

It was a day that came faster than anticipated, and even just waking up in the morning let me know that I was going to instinctively miss it. I was going to miss waking up with Yachi and Shimizu.

But of course, I wasn't all that sentimental after getting two hours of sleep, so at the breakfast table I was already nodding off without even touching my eggs.

"Erm, Aozora-san? Are you awake?" Azumane asked.

I forced a smile and looked up at him, still resting my head against my hand. "Yep, just tired. Finish up, though. Your match is against Fukurodani, so you—" I yawned and tried to cover my mouth while doing so. "You need the energy."

My limbs were sore and I was sleep deprived.

"You sure you're good?" Nishinoya asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Ohoho, you know you can sleep on Noya-san's shoulder if you get too tired—" Tanaka chimed in. His tone was as excited as usual, but came out in barely a whisper.

"Ryuu, shut up." Nishinoya said, blush rising yet again. He seemed to keep a bit of distance from me after that, I noticed.

The breakfast continued, and it was quite nice to see everyone getting along as they were supposed to; even if 'getting along' meant shouting and threatening and teasing each other.

Ah, yes. What it meant to be a team.

They talked on for a while longer before Takeda-sensei mentioned something that I had to pay attention to. "Um, Aozora-san, you're in charge of cleanup today, I believe. Are you going to be alright?"

Since I hadn't been cooking this morning, I was in charge of the dishes while everyone was out on their run. There wasn't that much to do, gratefully. Half asleep, I murmured out, "Yeah."

Everyone began piling up dishes by the sink and filing out of the room. It was at that point I decided to close my eyes for a minute.

I had set myself up for it in a way.

_If I close my eyes, I'd just be resting them. It's pretty hard to fall asleep while sitting, anyway, and I'm not _that _tired_. I assured myself.

It was after being lulled into that false sense of security that I drifted off into dreamland.

The dream ended before it could really form much of anything. It was the kind of dream that was easily forgotten when I woke up, and it probably didn't mean anything.

The forgotten dream was the least of my worries after I figured out that I had actually fallen asleep. And while time should've been my main priority, I was more startled by the boy behind me, who looked like he was taking pictures of my sleeping form, with his phone camera pointed near me. When he noticed that I was awake, he was so startled that he didn't move his device. He just stared, and although he didn't show any emotion on his face, I could tell that he was mortified based off of his eyes and the sweat trickling down his neck.

"Kenma-kun?" I asked, rubbing my eyes slightly.

His response was almost immediate. "It's not what it looks like."

"Well." I coughed slightly in order to relieve some of the tension in the room, but he was so on edge that it just seemed to startle him more. "Care to explain?"

He couldn't know how to read me, so he wasn't able to hear the tone behind my voice. Was it irritation? Laid-back?

He didn't speak for a bit, which made me suspicious. I didn't believe for a second that Kenma was 'sneaking pictures' of me, no matter what the situation would be, but I couldn't imagine what it could be for until he finally spit it out.

"Pokemon Go." He uttered. His fear didn't show in his voice. He sounded as nonchalant as ever. It was just from experience that I knew how embarrassing it could've been, and seeing him in this predicament was…

Hilarious.

I began to laugh. It was rude, in a way. Kenma immediately changed from stoic to a frown on instinct. He sat down on the chair while I was erupting in laughter.

"Wh-haha, which Pokémon did you risk your dignity to catch?" I asked. Even after I asked it, it just seemed to grow funnier.

"…A Kamonegi*." He said. Although I couldn't see it when he was further away, upon closer inspection, his ears were bright pink, his eyes seemed slightly wider than usual, and he was pressing his mouth in a thin line. The sight made me laugh even harder.

"The Asia-only exclusive Pokémon, right? But it's rare, even here." I explained, and that finally seemed to put him more at ease, as I expected. He didn't reply, and my laughter finally calmed.

Then the whole time thing finally caught up with my thoughts, and I inwardly screamed. "Erm, actually… Kenma-kun, how long has it been?"

"Karasuno's been on their run with and Nekoma for about fifteen minutes, so they'll be coming back soon and playing with Fukurodani." He explained, thoroughly and precisely.

Fifteen minutes.

I looked at the pile of dishes. It may have just been me, but they seemed much bigger than I originally thought. I immediately rolled up my sleeves and started to wash them.

"Those bruises…" Kenma pointed out. "…Don't they hurt?"

I put another dish on the rack to dry. "It's not that they don't hurt, but…"

I turned to face him seriously for a moment. My face wasn't neutral. _Something_ could be detected in it. It wasn't a smile, but it wasn't a frown either. It was a stare with those cold eyes that reflected something that almost seemed like pride.

"I don't hate the pain, though."

Kenma realized that even I could seem threatening sometimes, and he looked back at me the same way that he'd look at Hinata when _he_ was serious.

Those few seconds passed, and he recovered as he figured out a response. "I do."

I turned back to doing dishes, absentmindedly speaking to him while scrubbing grease and oil off of porcelain. "I thought so too. Really similar, until recently. I think it was Nish—"

I froze. I didn't want to imply anything between me and Nishinoya, so I quickly corrected myself. "I think it was Kuroo and the others who got me used to it, though."

Kenma paused for a second, as noted by the sounds of his phone halting. "Do you… like Kuro?"

"Huh?"

"I was just thinking that it's probably best to ask you directly. It's safer than assuming, even if you're going to lie." He replied.

This was the second time recently that someone asked me about my interest in boys, I realized, but the feeling this time was completely different.

"Nah, Kuroo-san is way too pesky and annoying for my tastes." I replied, figuring that something more sarcastic would've been to Kenma's comfort.

All that I got in response was a look that clearly said, _I know, right_?

"What brought it up, anyway?" I asked.

He sighed. "I didn't really think that you two liked each other, but the guys were talking about it last night."

"Really? I didn't think that would be enough to strike up your interest. Kuroo-san seems rather popular, so it can't be his first accusation, right?" I inquired. I couldn't be the first girl he's bothered to talk to.

"Yeah. When Kuro finds someone interesting, it's not like he cares about gender. He's annoying in that way." Kenma claimed, clearly implying personal experiences. "It's just that when the team asked him if he liked you, he said 'no'."

"Doesn't 'no' mean that he doesn't like me?"

Kenma seemed more hesitant to talk about it, almost like he regretted asking me in the first place when he already knew the answer to everything. "Well… yeah. It's just that normally he says something suspicious like 'who knows' or compliments them, like 'well, she's definitely cute'. He doesn't usually deny it."

"Why do you think he denied it?"

His response was so fast that he almost cut me off. "I don't know."

It didn't sound as though there was a secret he wanted to keep, he just seemed to want to end the topic as soon as possible since he'd made the mistake of bringing up. I was genuinely curious, however, and pressed on. The water tap shut off as I placed the last dish in the dish rack.

"But you do know, don't you?" My voice came out with icy undertones. Kenma wasn't caught off guard after my seriousness earlier, but I saw him turn towards me out of the corner of my eye. He looked at me with his intrigued, cat-like eyes.

"… It's probably because Kuro knew that it was a time where he could've actually liked the person." Came Kenma's response, as dull as ever.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was worried I was pushing the question limit, as indicated by Kenma's frown, but this was somewhat important.

"Usually when Kuroo is interested by someone, it's not someone who he gets along with all that well. You are, so it's suspicious sometimes, and so he denied it so that nobody would get confused this time."

I nodded and sat back down on the chair. "That just makes him look more suspicious, unlike his intentions, though."

As I sat down, Kenma caught sight of my bruised arms again. Whether it was out of genuine concern or eagerness to change the topic, he said, "You should be more careful."

I glanced back down to my bruises, and closed my eyes. He had a point. "You already said something like that earlier. Are you really that eager to change the conversation? You're jumping the gun a little."

He frowned and refused to look back. "You're just like Kuro."

I laughed a little at his comparison. "Really? Because Kuroo-san says that I'm remarkably like you."

"Oh." Kenma said, as casual as ever. After a few seconds, though, he looked away from his phone with a slight frown. "Oh. So he wanted you to learn how to set because… oh."

Even without an elaboration, I could understand what he was trying to say. Kuroo had originally thought that with my preference to avoid pain and insightful analytic skills, I would make a Kenma-like setter. Just recently, he had ultimately decided that although Kenma and I shared similar traits in both opinion of play and skill, my specialties lay in different areas.

"Kuro's really…"

"Meddlesome." He started the sentence, and I joined in to finish it. We stared at each other for a few moments. Both of us had a deadpanned expression of silent agreement, but I smiled internally.

Then I reflected back on my actions and realized how strange I was being. How I was serious twice, which was stupid already, and how I had been talking to him and I _laughed_ at his mistake of taking a picture of me which was really insensitive and now I was calling him out for no reason and if we were really similar then he would hate it as just as I did—

"I'm being such a jerk." I spoke suddenly.

His eyebrows lowered and he nearly frowned to signify a mixture of confusion and curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when you think about it, I laughed even from the beginning when you came into the room off of a mistake that undoubtedly embarrassed you! I know I was tired, but I should've just pretended to be asleep or something." I started.

"Uh, that's fi—"

"And then it seemed like I was trying to convince you pain was a good thing, but it's really not and it's a good thing you're not, like, masochistic or whatever because that'd be really weird. Then I called your best friend annoying and… to be honest? I don't find him that annoying? I just pretend to for the sake of comedy and it's really dumb and offensive I think…"

"No, I think so t—"

"After that I kept asking weird questions about Kuroo-san too, but I knew it made you uncomfortable. To top things off, I called you out and _straight-up_ compared myself to you, _and_ I'm interrupting you!" I said, sitting up suddenly. My face was red with embarrassment, and I did my best to hide it in the palm of my hands. Hanging out with Kuroo and his laid-back attitude had finally shown it's repercussions as it imprinted itself on me.

No sorrys would be worth anything, and he'd judge me for that kind of rude character even though I_knew_ that he preferred a happy-go-lucky kind of person like Hinata.

I looked up to see him frowning. His eyes had the same glint of frustration I had whenever there was an unsolvable math problem; it was impossible to understand. But what was he thinking that about? I was about to ask before I remembered to watch my words and to stop asking questions.

Luckily, I didn't have to. He turned back to his phone yet again, and I could see the glare of the screen reflect off of his aqueous humor. "You're hard to read."

"Sorry." I knew that I was throwing him off by acting so meek, which completely threw off the other five-or-so personality types I'd shown him, but I had already messed up.

"No, it's nothing like that." He looked up at me. His hair blew in the wind and I froze.

It was the barest glint of a smile. The 'neko' of his school name* really began to show in his widened eyes. It was a mixture of a lot of things. A love for interest. Intrigue. Curiosity. Excitement.

And unlike me, he didn't apologize for it.

It was at that moment where it dawned on me that Kuroo found Kenma interesting for a reason. This had to undoubtedly be one of them.

Because I was intrigued, but felt a tad more intimidated.

Just then, I heard chatter outside the door. It broke the ice in the room quickly as both of us turned to the noise.

"Ah, looks like Karasuno's back, so we'll be starting the match soon." Kenma stood up, attention lingering on his phone for a few more seconds before starting to leave. Moments before he did, he looked back in the doorway and faced me.

"See you later, Sora." He said, using the two-character* nickname that he used for anyone he was friends with. It seemed lackadaisical, as though he couldn't be inclined to speak more than two syllables for his friends. It seemed bordering on disrespectful, but I knew what he was trying to say.

He had been trying to tell me, _I think we'd be good friends. _In his own Kenma way.

"Later…" I said, waving after him before preparing for Karasuno's match against Fukurodani.

* * *

I had to take a double-take at my notes while I watched the game. I switched views back and forth between the court and my notes.

In my notes, I made predictions for rates of growth and best tactics, but they all seemed useless in comparison to what I was seeing.

Although I had estimated that there would certainly be _some_ discrepancies with my predictions and the results, I didn't think that Karasuno would be able to _multiply_ their power in such a short amount of time.

Yachi sat next to me, clinging onto the metal bar in front of her as though she couldn't see Karasuno's wonder behind it. Her eyes almost glittered. She seemed to be rendered speechless, aside from her occasional "Wow…!"

The one thing that struck me the most was Nishinoya's toss.

As of volleyball, it was a rule that the libero could not score a single point. Not by a block, not by a chance ball, not by spiking.

But Nishinoya had finally realized that he was not limited to tossing.

It gave off an odd sound that did not resemble Sugawara's or Kageyama's usual tosses. Instead, I could recognize the sounds of a flam, but the referee didn't mention it.

His toss, to put it blatantly, was pretty bad. But that wasn't important. Neither was Nishinoya's frustrated yell as he sank to his knees while screaming of imperfections.

I looked at his frustrated form. My gaze darted over to Yachi, who still looked at the court with ever-adoring eyes.

It wasn't anything stupid. I didn't think of anything like, '_it was as though everyone's feelings flowed into me_'. Even if I compared real life to a storybook, this wouldn't me a melodrama.

In reality, all of it was simple. I had watched their plays the same way I had every other day, but it was only on the last day of training camp that I finally began noticing the little things.

I had noticed the way Nishinoya had grinned after failing, as though he accepted his faults and wanted to fix them as soon as possible. Tsukishima seemed to be putting more effort into volleyball after those days with Kuroo and Bokuto, which made me wonder just how inspiring those two in particular really were, behind the scenes.

But it wasn't just those who were closely entwined with me, either. Kageyama was smiling much more frequently. Whenever he set up for an amazing spike, or when he managed to do some 'genius setter' play, not even his small grin and fist-bump escaped my vision. Azumane was a loud shouter when he wanted to be, and although he wasn't the type to like the spotlight all that much, not even he would resist in joining during team cheers. Tanaka would do the same weird jig (as always) with Nishinoya, one knee down like a loyal knight while pumping his fists at one-hundred and twenty beats per second.

I overheard once that Hinata had been inspired by the Small Giant because it was something he could relate to, and that's what had him become a volleyball addict.

But for me, it was this.

Seeing everyone—the crowd (Yachi in this case), the team, the opponents, and even the coaches—all enjoying themselves in a search for some sort of self-improvement, knowing that it wasn't a lifetime dedication but something just as important in the moment. Smiles. Challenges.

That's what got me hooked on volleyball.

For a brief second, I heard my former senpai speak. It was a callback to when he had tried to convince me to attend his high school. His voice was just as salient and resolute as always, even as a flashback.

"I believe that Shiratorizawa would present a challenge for you."

And although I had agreed, I hadn't sought for the opportunity to go. I was content in being a big bird in a small sky.

But it wasn't like that anymore.

I looked at the court, leaning on the bar in front of me as I smiled fondly at it. The pleased expression even surprised Yachi.

Although I was filled with the sense of obligation to do… something, I couldn't figure out what to do.

As soon as the thought came to me, I mustered up all my courage, shoved my feelings of nervousness down my throat as I always did while putting on a random façade, and shouted.

"Go, Karasuno!"

It wasn't particularly loud. It didn't have nearly the same volume as when Nishinoya and Tanaka screamed in unison after Karasuno scored a special point. It was loud enough for the gym to hear, and that was it.

But it was enough for Sugawara to smile, most of the team to nod, Tsukishima to send me a weird look, and Nishinoya to look over at me, surprised.

Yachi chimed in. Because she had joined recently and wasn't aware that I had been someone more reserved, especially in terms of cheering, she cheered, "Yeah, go Karasuno!"

I laughed. It served as a distraction, and it took a blow of the referee's whistle to signal that it was both okay for the opposing team to serve and for Nishinoya to get back into position.

Out of anyone, I couldn't fathom why Nishinoya was always so intrigued by my shenanigans. In comparison to anyone, especially Shimizu or Azumane (both of whom he may or may not have had a crush on), I was dull.

My name may have indicated an association with the sky*, but by no means was it beautiful or clear. My eyes weren't a brilliant pale blue or clear*. They moreso resembled gray clouds that fell on days where I would much rather stay inside. My hair wasn't a shimmering gold, like the morning sun*, but black. At the very least, I supposed that with the amount of visible dandruff I had, the clumps of dirt imitated stars in a night sky.

Bringing me out of my thoughts was a call by someone completely unrelated to my contemplations, as Bokuto shouted, "Traitor!" In response to my cheers.

"Isn't it more unloyal to cheer for you guys?" Tsukishima mentioned, causing Bokuto to 'ohhhhh', and shortly after, "but still!"

But it was also that kind of friendly exchange that I loved too, very much, and I couldn't help but forget my worries as I, for the very first time, beamed at the team.

* * *

I was _not_ informed about the barbecue after, but when I had heard the coach end his motivational(ish) rant with a, "so let's eat!", the teams' sudden burst of morale began to click into place.

Either way, it lead to the group barbecue after everyone's final game. The girls huddled together while the boys spoke to each other. The gender separation was obvious.

I felt that I couldn't speak with the girls. They all seemed prettier in a group, (was that even possible?), and their fleeting chatter sounded almost melodic. Group at perfect intervals, light voices at a beautiful pitch, like a musical ensemble that played across the boys' heartstrings. Nishinoya, Tanaka, and Yamamoto all seemed to bask in their voices, and even felt the need to protect them.

So I felt that if I did walk over to the girls, the entire situation would've become awkward. I was an outsider. Their consonant melody would've had a single instrument out of key. Ruining their beautiful piece, all because of a single disjunct instrument.

But at the same time, it wasn't as though I could just waltz over to the boys and speak with Nishinoya, Kenma, or even Kuroo. The gender gap existed for a reason, and I didn't want to risk my reputation for my mere self-comfort. Nekoma's team was apparently already analyzing my relationship with Kuroo; I didn't need them thinking that I was a flighty and flirty female either, who would casually go from guy to guy in a cheap attempt to woo them. Although they didn't sound like the type to judge like that based off of Kuroo and Kenma's descriptions, I couldn't rule out the possibility.

Oh. And speaking with the teachers was out of the question. As 'mature' and 'responsible' as I was praised (or rather, rumored) to be, even from a young age, engaging in useless chatter with adults didn't exactly appeal to me.

And although I had basically accepted my position, metaphorically perched upon a telephone pole, a familiar person walked near me and sat directly next to me, but gave me proper sitting room. I watched his profile, and identified his untidy black hair and grey eyes—realizing just how similar it was to my own—and remembered the days he would practice in the gym alongside his troublesome (yet endearing, in a way) salt-and-pepper haired ace, Bokuto. I couldn't recall asking for his name, but I did remember all of Bokuto's screams, so I knew his name went something along the lines of 'AKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASHI'.

At first, I was extremely surprised by his appearance. With all of the people surprising me, I half-thought that he was going to converse with me or want to get to know me more.

It took a few seconds before I realized how self-absorbed and childish the thought was, even just to entertain.

He had probably—no, assuredly—sat to get away from the commotion. The loud wooping and hollering of his passionate and doting ace. Just for a few minutes. After all, I had claimed the only bench where no one bothered to sit at.

I wanted to get to know him, too, but couldn't bring myself to say anything. Although it was possible he wouldn't mind speaking to one person, it was also plausible that he wouldn't want to talk at all. I could see him as the type of person who'd sit out for a few minutes as the volume peaked, and came back when it settled down for a bit. Especially if it was me in his situation.

And I was proven right. A few minutes after the setter had finished his food, he walked back towards the hullabaloo, leaving me alone again.

Not everything revolved around me. That was fine. Not everyone was going to talk to me. I had painfully accepted that long ago; long before I could remember.

While quietly eating my own food, I could descry bits and pieces of conversations.

Nishinoya was explaining why Shimizu was so amazing. He described every small detail to his 'students', who worshipped him based off of his slap from Shimizu. Or as I believed, they glorified him for minor harassment.

Tsukishima was explaining why they called Nishinoya 'master' to Yamaguchi. His voice was an amalgamation of disgust, disappointment, and confusion over the topic.

Kuroo was speaking to Hinata and talking about Ushiwaka, which was what ultimately caught my attention as I took a double-take.

Even at my old school, Ushijima's brilliance had never been shadowed, but to think that word of him would follow me into high school even after we had stopped communicating was unprecedented.

I was listening to Kuroo's conversation, but watched as Nishinoya took a break from his little 'Save Shimizu Squad' to walk over to me.

"Hey, Tori-san. What's up?" He asked, sitting where Fukurodani's setter had sat just recently.

"Nothing. I just realized how popular Ushijima-senp—san is in volleyball."

I realized my slip-up the minute I said it. Both my eyes and Nishinoya's eyes widened. His mouth dropped wide open, already preparing for his gesticulations. Evidently, it seemed as though he had noticed my mistake too.

"You were about to call him '-senpai'! Tori-san, do you know Ushiwaka?!" He re-stated. The party was already loud, as expected from such a large group, so it wasn't as though everyone turned their heads. It was enough to attract the attention of whom we had a personal connection with: Kuroo, Kenma, Tanaka, Azumane, Tsukishima and Yamamoto. A handful of people.

At first, my brain wracked for a lie. Something that used to come so easy to me, but I couldn't come up with one on the fly. I hadn't rehearsed any lines. I was just a naïve little girl who hadn't planned out what would happen if my lies were called out…

_That's a lie. Am I really attempting self-deceit? You can make a lie if you want to. It matters if they find out here. No need to play the weak heroine that wants attention. _

Just as the thought/(reminder) crossed my mind, the lie came cooly to me. But along with the smooth free pass out of the situation, I could taste something disgusting in the back of my throat. A mnemonic that I was underhanded, and that whenever I used _this_ type of lie—one that not even Kuroo, Kenma _or_ Nishinoya could discern on their best days—I would hate it. This was not where they were supposed to find out about Ushijima. Preferably, they'd never have to. Especially not with Hinata staring ever so intently.

It came fluidly, though. Actions and everything. Something that Nishinoya'd find in-character. I waved one hand frantically to wash away the idea. "Sorry, I slipped up! I didn't expect you to call out my occasional stutter. It's just that, you know, there are a lot of people here…"

I knew that Nishinoya was always trying to be considerate towards me, and so I decided to exploit it.

Immediately, he flushed red in embarrassment. His eyebrows knitted in confusion as he darted his eyes around while lowering his head. He gripped the wooden bench a little tighter and shouted out, "Oh, sorry! My bad!"

I laughed it off. I still had to look approachable and presentable. "Aha, it's no problem. Anyway, what's that thing with Shimizu-senpai?" I asked, nodding over to Shimizu who sat daintily with the girls while Yamamoto and Tanaka turned away from Nishinoya's outburst to return to their obligation as Shimizu's body guard; gazes lowered and threatening, giving off the territorial glare from a predator's eye.

"… Oh, right." A pause settled for a second, and only background chatter and the sound of meat against a grill could be heard. Then, breaking out of the silence, Nishinoya's blank and thoughtful expression changed completely. Within a fraction of a second, a large smile spread across his face. Unlike usual, his eyes were open; not closed in his typical bravado act. It was almost as though he was intently watching my reaction. "We're just protecting our _lovely_ Kiyoko-san!"

I scanned him for a second. I tried to figure out his problem without the need to ask, but couldn't understand what he was trying to hide, and what his motives would be for hiding it. I didn't want to pry too much, but my curiosity wouldn't let me drop the topic completely, so I spoke up. "Is something wrong?"

"Wha—" Nishinoya started, but faltered. All of a sudden, his expression switched yet again. "Well. I mean."

I raised an eyebrow to tell him to elaborate.

"Like, I say, 'our lovely Kiyoko-san', but I'm not… I'm…" Oddly enough, he turned away from me and ran his fingers through his hair at such an angle that his arm and elbow covered his face and any discernible expression. "Like, I'm not saying that _you're_ not lovely or cute or adorable or whatever. You are, kinda..."

He trailed off, growing quiet all of a sudden as I could feel my face heat up. I searched for a reply—thank you? Should I have retorted, like a tsukkomi to his boke*? I was at a complete loss, before he cleared this up by continuing. Where was this even coming from?

"Oh! A-And so is Yachi-san, and those two from Fukurodani, and… uh… girls are cute! It's just that… uh…"

I relaxed, and sighed in relief. Of course the situation wasn't pregnant with implications. It was just my misunderstandings, the same way I had curved the situation with Nishinoya long ago, when Tsukishima still implied it. I laughed. "You don't have to worry, Yuu. I already know that I'm not as cute as Shimizu-senpai." I noticed just how self-pitying that sounded, and quickly corrected myself. "Oh, but don't get me wrong. I know there are a lot of girls that I _am_ cuter than, even if it's just personality wise. I wasn't given particularly terrible acne, and I'm not anorexic or overweight. My hair's pretty straight, and it's naturally that way. That might be a bad thing, though, since it feels less encouraging to brush, haha."

Nishinoya interrupted me. "That's still not true though," he said. "There are plenty of things that are cute about you."

"Thanks." I said. I was already aware of this social norm—if I agreed with him, I would seem conceited. If I disagreed, I'd simply seem pitying or ungrateful since I wasn't so badly off. However, his tone of voice made him sound like he was setting up for something, and I didn't want him to continue.

He shrugged. "Like, I would've basically failed Japanese without your help and even then I barely passed, so I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but…" he took a few moments to take a glance at my reddened expression, which caused him to dart his gaze away even faster.

"Your eyes are kinda nice. So is your smile. Your laugh sounds like bells—agh, no, wait, you warned me, that's such a damn cliché, my bad—but it does sound nice. Like I wouldn't mind listening to it for a while. And sometimes it's cute when I reread your texts when you're tired and you stop starting your messages with capitals and you have to correct your mistakes."

Needless to say, his boldness managed to short-circuit my brain for a few moments. I could not find any act to choose from, or any lie to say.

"But I think your personality's the best." He said, contrasting my opinion entirely. _My _personality? Immediately, my mind began working in its distrustful ways. He must've thought my _persona_ was appealing. Even though I had never put on an act with him, he must've seen how I acted with someone else and thought of me as amazing based off of that…

"At first, you seem really smart and serious, but you're actually just shy. Like Kiyoko-san! But you're super different, too. You know what kind of person other people like, and so you try to make them more comfortable with you, which is really nice."

That was not what I had seen at as.

I hadn't—I hadn't even speculated that opinion. I had always thought that I was being 'a manipulative bitch that tried to get on everyone's good side', but there Nishinoya was, saying that it was a _positive_ thing.

The worst part? I couldn't find an error.

"And I try to ignore it when you look disappointed even when it's a great thing, like coming in second in the prefecture or not returning a ball properly. You don't take any compliments either, like you're thinking 'I know myself better than you'—oh, this is kinda from experience, I guess, and it's a little hypocritical—but you don't know what _I_ see. It's super frustrating!"

A pregnant pause settled. He seemed to be treading on a tightrope. The tension was so thick, and yet felt as though it could snap in a second and leave everything barrelling down.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm thinking for a sec." He said. He looked at me, sounding incredibly serious. His face still had lingering shades of peach from everything he had just said, but he seemed to muster all of his courage together.

And I knew what he was going to say before he mentioned anything.

But his words still came. He didn't avoid my stare. On the contrary, he stared me down—something that reminded me of a real crow: predatory. "Kotori."

"Hm? What?"

I half-hoped that he'd say, 'you've got something on your face' or even something like 'are you gonna have any more meat', but it never came.

Instead, Nishinoya spoke extremely quietly and seriously.

"What if I told you I didn't want to be friends anymore…?"

I should have interrupted him before he could say anything. I should have left. I should have done something to prevent the current situation.

At first, he started to add onto his sentence. "I don't… really want to be _just_ your friend forever, right? So…"

Instead, he watched as my face fell faster than he could have guessed and I seemed at a loss for words.

If Nishinoya… wasn't my friend?

What had I done? Why was he saying it? How had I managed to piss off Nishinoya _this_ much, when he was the type to even forgive someone who had gotten him _suspended_ once…

I was speechless. I couldn't tell if it was my raw, stutter-y voice, my flabbergasted expression, or the look of pure shock that caused Nishinoya to look back at me with a start and lean in close, furrowing his eyebrows in concern. "Wait, Tori-s—"

"I guess… i-if you really didn't… want to be friends anymore, then…" I replied carefully. I wouldn't cry over something so lame, but I was still in a state of shock, only able to follow lines that seemed to fit.

"No! That's not what I—sorry!"

He took a deep breath after seeing that I hadn't calmed down much, and decided to speak in a more somber tone. "Kotori,"

I noticed that he had solely said my first name, which was unusual, but even I could not deny just how melodic it sounded. Normally, my first name was equivalent to a steamroller riding through porcelain, with metal scraping on metal, but coming from Nishinoya when he was serious, it was a sound that almost made me _smile_ despite the terrible feeling.

Immediately, his atmosphere deflated and he settled into panic when I looked at him, his cheeks reddened and he backed away from our close proximity quickly. "L-Look! We'll be best friends forever, okay? I was kidding! Joke! Joke! Just a joke! Theatrical question!"

It was too late to turn back now anyways, I realized with a stroke of guilt. I didn't want him to feel obligated to be my friend, but it was already too late. All I knew was one thing.

I had somehow managed to get on his bad side so many times that he no longer wanted to be my friend.

I couldn't even say it wasn't deserved.

(So was it his fault? Or mine?)

"Theoretical question," I corrected. "And… yeah. It's fine."

He seemed to be preparing to say something else, and I instinctively knew that it was going to be the same kind of game-changing, important quote as just mentioned.

Before he could get out the first word, I blurted out, "Sorry, gotta go!" And hurried away from Nishinoya and away from the bench. The abrupt leave and change of tone managed to surprise the master of pace changers himself, Nishinoya, and he let me go while basking in shock.

I looked back at Nishinoya, and only Bokuto's outbursts once again brought me down to earth. I turned to see the banter as Bokuto and Kuroo tag-teamed Tsukishima in teasing, which was something well-deserved.

Tsukishima looked downright annoyed at Bokuto's harsh hand patting his back—an action that typically indicated friendliness or reassurance, and although the intention of such was evident in Bokuto's words and smiles, his pat on the back felt like individual spikes that made me feel sorry for the volleyballs that had been on the receiving end of such a hand.

"Yeah, no worries, _Mr. Glasses_." Kuroo emphasized the moniker to drive home the jeering.

Although my mind was elsewhere, I figured that partaking in their games would've been a decent puzzle to distract me as I formulated responses.

I found one. "Oh, c'mon. I didn't expect you to bully our darling little kouhai."

Tsukishima's expression seemed to sit on the border between 'oh-great-another-one' and the desire to retort, but both Tsukishima and I knew that the second he opened his mouth for anything other than denial, the two captains beside him would rapid-fire responses.

"… Argh! I forgot he's a junior!" Bokuto screamed, raising his head to the sky while covering his face with both his palms. "He's just _tall_, y'know?"

"I'm used to it, so." Kuroo said casually. He redirected his gaze towards me and raised both eyebrows before looking behind me.

I thought about what had been behind me—trees, the bench I had come from, the sky, Akaashi… although I had figured out quite a few possibilities, his gestures were still too vague to narrow anything down. I raised a single, unamused eyebrow.

He raised his eyebrows twice and quickly before grinning, and I caught on.

Oh. Nishinoya.

I had let slip a small uncomfortable look (something that I'd have to rebuke myself for later) before giving him a somewhat teasing look, telling him, _wouldn't _you _like to know. _

A bluff.

That was fine.

Even though others were usually willing to accept my sloppy cover-ups, Kuroo seemed to have the same houndlike nose and perceptiveness that Nishinoya seemed to have and I panicked a little when I saw the look on his face.

The only thing I could think was _Shit, shit, shit, he knows. He _knows _I'm lying. It's because I slipped up._

"I'll message you later." Kuroo said, turning back towards Bokuto and Tsukishima. Both of them had noticed the silent conversation that had passed by, but hadn't an idea about the contents.

"What?/Hm?" Bokuto and Tsukishima both asked, more so out of lack of response than actual curiosity.

"Wouldn't you like to know. It's our telepathy. Speaking of telepathy, have you seen that new superhero anime?" Kuroo said. I noted his smooth, quick change in topic. The transition got full marks, especially since he was talking to Bokuto. Tsukishima seemed to remember the silent conversation, but put it aside.

I wasn't important, anyway.

I turned heel, and left the boys to talk about whatever they wanted to. It'd be their last time to speak, especially since our bus left early.

"Oh, Aozora. You weren't gonna leave without saying goodbye, were you?" Kuroo said, mock hurt in his voice.

Without turning, I said a terse 'see ya', but it was unsatisfactory for Kuroo. "You're not getting off that easy," he said, "I'll be there in a sec."

"Don't take too long," I replied sarcastically, and he grinned as he dismissed himself from teasing Tsukishima.

I waited a short distance for Kuroo to come over and nod his head in affirmation. He walked over to me shortly after.

Before he could even mutter a word, I told him what I thought. "I don't think you care that much about goodbyes, so what do you really want?"

"Awfully cruel, Aozora. Perhaps I want a tearful goodbye." He said, wiping a fake tear while wearing a smile contradictory to his statement. "Seriously though, what happened. You look bothered. Did the idiot finally confess?"

"Actually, it was more of the opposite…" I muttered, biting my bottom lip carefully and eyeing the ground.

Kuroo jumped to his own conclusion first and said, whether seriously or for comedic purposes, "Ah, no way. You confessed to him and he actually _rejected_ you?"

"It's nothing like that!" I insisted, persistent frown on my face.

"In that case, what happened?" He asked.

I knew that Kuroo must've had far more expertise than me in this area, as much as I'd hate to admit it, but it didn't concern him as well. Somehow, I felt a sense of embarrassment at the thought of telling him the situation. If I simply dismissed it in an amiable manner, Kuroo would see it as an opening to tease me.

So I just had to lie.

Something that I'd consider important and Kuroo would consider trivial—ah.

"I wanted to learn how to play volleyball…"

A complete lie.

Kuroo laughed and rambled on about something that didn't matter, but I was drowned in my own thoughts.

It was in such a slight manner that not even Kuroo could see my apathetic stares, the changes my eyes would undergo as they lost their shine to substitute for bleakness, and how it would immediately perk back up to a fanciful glitter when he redirected his attention.

Not even Kuroo's infallible perceptiveness could detect the lie.

There was no way I'd be able to be honest, since it'd be a bother. I also began to think of it as unwise to be too frank in revealing herself to someone I barely knew, so I simply smiled and laughed at the statements that I wasn't paying attention to.

But then I remembered Nishinoya's words—I was simply accommodating others, but…

Although I had to admit that he was typically right, this case wasn't for Kuroo. It was for my own sake. No amount of flowery words would make up for it.

Luckily, to save me, I heard the Coach's whistle which dictated that time was up.

"The bus is leaving now, so I'd better be going!" I said. "I'll be sure to message you, though!"

"Are you the type that hates making calls, too, or is that fine?" He asked in his teasing tone.

"I mean, you live in Tokyo, so it can't be helped, I guess." I said in a teasingly reluctant sort of manner. He laughed, and I waved to him and left soon after.

"Well, aren't you chummy with Nekoma's captain." While finding a seat on the bus, I heard Tanaka's passive comment.

Immediately, without knowing any fact and following the sole basis of Tanaka's comment, Tsukishima looked at me with an exasperated stare and said, "You're _joking_."

"Obviously! Did you seriously think so?" I complained.

Tsukishima leaned back in his chair with hints of relief washing over his face. "Well. You two didn't seem like a thing, but if it was true I wouldn't be surprised."

"Yeaaaah, you'll make Noya-san jealous! Ain't that right?" Tanaka grinned, looking over to his best friend, who seemed to be deeply engaged in a conversation with Azumane.

"Huh? What?" Nishinoya asked upon hearing his name mentioned in a sentence, successfully attracting the attention of his conversation partner, Azumane, to our conversation.

"Hey, Noya-san," Tanaka asked with one of the biggest shit-eating grins his face had ever adorned, "what would you do if Aozora hooked up with that Nekoma guy?"

For a split second, he seemed surprised, as though a good, easily receivable spike had flown over his head. He didn't smile, but he simply turned away so that he wouldn't face anyone, not even Azumane beside him, and shouted, "Ah, I mean, that'd be good!"

Although I pretended not to notice his mannerisms, as eccentric as Nishinoya was, I knew that he was a rather open book. Even when he lied, others could tell.

"I'm not!" I insisted, in almost a playful manner when Nishinoya interrupted.

"They… get along well, don't they…" Nishinoya seemed to question himself more than the others.

"Wait, not you too…" I said.

Nishinoya guffawed loudly, but I noticed the expression of confusion on Azumane's face, as he was the only one who could see Nishinoya. In other words, there was a discrepancy with Nishinoya's actions and expression. But why?

The rest of the ride was relatively calm, with bits of chigger chatter from the cawing birds and Hinata and Kageyama would cause a fuss in the back of the bus.

I had waited almost the whole ride, but Nishinoya didn't sneak a single glance at me, and even seemed to prefer looking at the ground than glancing in my direction.

I remembered wanting to sit by him on the way back, but it was too presumptuous in the end.

He didn't really want to be my friend, did he.

* * *

The team arrived back at the school on Saturday at three o'clock where all team members were told to rest up from the camp. Despite the Coach's and Takeda-sensei's warnings alike, I could still hear Hinata and Kageyama making plans to practice at the nearby park.

"Tori-san," Nishinoya's voice wrung out, breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked around to see him beaming with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder. The more reserved attitude he had surrounding him (for the entire bus ride, for that matter) seemed to dissipate. Or so it seemed upon first glance.

When I looked him over again, there were still things that seemed odd. He seemed to be forcing the smile, as it would lower and bounce back in small increments at a time. The air of bravado I usually got from him seemed a little off too, as his chest wasn't puffed and there seemed nothing too special about his posture.

"Would you mind if I walked you home?" He asked. He tapped his toe against the concrete, kicking an invisible rock.

"Huh? But you live in the opposite direction, and you'd have to take a bus. Doesn't that seem a little inconvenient for you? I mean—" I started anxiously, but Nishinoya laughed, successfully interrupting her

"Yeah! Yeah, whoops. Sorry! Stupid of me. Never mind then, see you!" He said. Words shot through me with bullet-like force as he walked away.

I opened my mouth for a second, but he was already out of earshot for casual conversation. Besides, it wasn't as though I could accept after telling him that it would inconvenience him because it would imply that I was willing to cause problems for him.

So I stared as he went to catch up with Azumane and the other third years, striking up a conversation within seconds. The scrapes of their shoes against concrete faded. After contemplating the situation for a few moments, looking at their fading silhouettes against the summer sun, I turned and went back home to work on homework and left.

* * *

It took a while.

My eyes snapped open at three in the morning.

"Oh, fuck." I whispered, realizing that Nishinoya had _not_ meant that he didn't want to associate with me anymore.

* * *

**EXTRA**

[Nishinoya Yuu: ryuu i think i got my sorry ass rejected today]

[Aozora Kotori: Um?]

[Nishinoya Yuu: fUCK WRONG PERSON]

* * *

**despite how long it took this is oddly one of my shorter chapters but oh well it's still quite a few pages**

**we finally see proper development in many areas**

**also i got a lot of messages saying that they wanted to write something with kuroo and aozora or just aozora in general and tbh feel free but credit + link me and i'm good? this story is staying a nishinoya x oc story though so.**

**i hope it's enjoyable**

**woo**

**FOLLOWMEONTUMBLR****FOLLOWMEONTUMBLR****FOLLOWMEONTUMBLR**

***kamonegi - farfetch'd**

***NEKO MEANS CAT X10214381**

***kenma is literally so lazy that he cannot be inclined to use more than two characters for anyone's name. even kuroo, where he says 'kuro'. it's one o. he can't even be bothered to say one 'o' are you kidding**

***most of the sky puns with morning sun and everything are explained in earlier chapters, but there's a little more symbolism here if you look into it**

***tsukkomi and boke  
tsukkomi - straight man  
boke - idiot  
used in a comedy act, where the idiot says something stupid and the 'straight man' makes the idiocy evident**

**hooo boy it's finally done i haven't given up i swear i hope this makes up for it somehow**

**#SSB**


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